grifter

Noun

grifter (plural grifters)

1. (US, informal) A con artist; someone who pulls confidence games; a swindler, scammer, huckster, hustler, and/or charlatan.
   • We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
   • 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.1958, Robert Bloch, That Hell-Bound Train

   Synonyms:

   bristler, bunco artist, bunco-steerer, chiseler, con artist, confidence artist, confidence trickster, conman, flimflammer, lugger

2. (Internet, colloquial, especially) 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.
   • 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.2026 January 24, Michael Pascoe, “America’s mighty economic power has feet of clay”, in Michael West Media, archived from the original on 30 Jan 2026
   • That tiny blue slice is what’s left of the Coalition (both Liberals and Nationals), squeezed between the teals and a barbarian horde of mouthbreathers, grifters and flat-out, flat-earth fucking weirdos gathered under the bright-orange war banner of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation — or, as they would...2026 June 3, John Birmingham, “Neoliberalism ate the world. Enter: Pauline Hanson”, in Crikey
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.
   • 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”.2026 April 6, Jerimiah, “Op-Ed: The Modern Snake Oil of Grifter Critics”, in The Fandomentals