English

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.)

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

Verb

thimblerig ‎(third-person singular simple present thimblerigs, present participle thimblerigging, simple past and past participle thimblerigged)

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

See also

• three-card monte