grifter

English

Etymology

From grift +‎ -er; or probably an alteration of grafter (“a corrupt person, one who accepts bribes”), which is essentially a doublet of the same word. Originally circus slang (carny; compare shill of similar semantics), gradually widened in sense. First attested in 1906; popularized online circa late 2010s.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪftɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪftə/
• Rhymes: -ɪftə(ɹ)

Noun

grifter (plural grifters)

1. (informal, originally Canada, US) A con artist; someone who pulls confidence games; a swindler, scammer, huckster, hustler, and/or charlatan.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:confidence trickster

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep:

     We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel.

   • 1958, Robert Bloch, That Hell-Bound Train:

     That was the train the drunks and the sinners rode—the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew.

   • 2020 November 12, Megan O’Grady, “How ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ Foretold Our Era of Grifting”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 2 July 2021:

     From the small-time grifters like Anna Sorokin, who adopted the last name Delvey to masquerade in downtown New York circles as a European heiress for four years before she was convicted of second-degree grand larceny in 2019, […] all impostors come equipped with a tall tale and a look to match.

2. (colloquial, especially Internet) A manipulator or otherwise generally corrupt person who "games" a system, group of people, or other entity for selfish gains; especially of a political "sell-out" perceived as lacking integrity.
   • 2026 January 24, Michael Pascoe, “America’s mighty economic power has feet of clay”, in Michael West Media‎^[2], archived from the original on 30 January 2026:

     The latest act in the Madness of King Donald drama playing globally on every channel underlined the increasingly delusional world the anti-hero inhabits, his fantasies fed and indulged by a cast of sycophants, lackeys and straight grifters, all in it for what they can get.

3. (Internet, derogatory) A YouTuber or other content creator who produces low-effort content critiquing a particular franchise or trend, particularly content perceived as ragebait or done for monetary gain.
   • 2026 April 6, Jerimiah, “Op-Ed: The Modern Snake Oil of Grifter Critics”, in The Fandomentals‎^[3]:

     But with changing technology, criticism has entered a new era thanks to YouTube and live streaming. In the middle of all this growth is a pseudo-intellectual fungus which seems to be spreading rapidly. In my article about Box Office numbers I mentioned the phrase “grifter critic”.

Derived terms

• grifterness

Translations

con artist — see con artist

Political "sell-out" perceived as lacking integrity

• Polish: naciągacz m, naciągaczka (pl) f, hochsztapler (pl) m, hochsztaplerka f

Further reading

• “grifter”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Swedish

Noun

grifter

1. indefinite plural of grift