thimblerig

English

WOTD – 26 July 2016

L’Escamoteur (The Conjurer, c. 1502, detail) by Hieronymus Bosch and/or his workshop, collection of the Musée Municipal in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, France. A man of rank is shown peering spellbound at a game of cups and balls, similar to thimblerig, operated by a conjurer. (The full painting can be viewed here.)

Etymology

thimble +‎ rig

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɪmbəlɹɪɡ/
• Hyphenation: thim‧ble‧rig

Noun

thimblerig (plural thimblerigs)

1. A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game.
2. One operating such a game.

Synonyms

• (game): shell game
• (operator): thimblerigger

Translations

Sleight-of-hand betting game

• Russian: напёрстки (napjórstki)
• Spanish: trile m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Tagalog: tatlong-didal

Person operating such a game

• Russian: напёрсточник (ru) (napjórstočnik)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: trilero m

Verb

thimblerig (third-person singular simple present thimblerigg, present participle ing, simple past and past participle thimbleriged)

1. To cheat in the thimblerig game.
2. To cheat by trickery.

See also

• three-card monte