sharper
See also: Sharper
English
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈʃɑɹpɚ/
Noun
sharper (plural sharpers)
- (dated) a swindler; a cheat; a professional gambler who makes his living by cheating.
- 1766, T[obias] Smollett, “Letter XXIX”, in Travels through France and Italy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] R[oberts] Baldwin, […], OCLC 733048407:
- Our young gentlemen who go to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set of sharpers, (some of them of our own country,) who deal in pictures and antiques, and very often impose upon the uninformed stranger, by selling him trash, as the productions of the most celebrated artists.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 44, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
- He was a man whom scarcely any amount of fortune could have benefited permanently, and who was made to be ruined, to cheat small tradesmen, to be the victim of astuter sharpers …
- 1878, John Payne, Introduction, in François Villon, Poems, translated by John Payne, New York: Boni & Liveright, c. 1918, p. 33
- […] in a twinkling the accomplished sharper changes the pitchers and pretending to examine the contents, asks the tapster what kind of wine he has given him […]
- 1882, W. S. Gilbert, "Emily, John, James, and I: A Derby Legend" in The "Bab" Ballads, Philadelphia: David McKay, publishing date not given, p. 275,
- The Derby Day sun glittered gaily on cads, / On maidens with gamboge hair, / On sharpers and pickpockets, swindlers and pads— / (For I, with my harp, was there).
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Synonyms
- chiseler, spiv
- See also Thesaurus:fraudster
Translations
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