shyster
/ˈʃaɪs.tə(ɹ)/US/ˈʃaɪs.tɚ/
shyster noun: someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.
Noun
shyster (plural shysters)
- Someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.
- True, it was a good advertisement at Boosters' Club lunches, and all the varieties of Annual Banquets to which Good Fellows were invited, to speak sonorously of […] a thing called Ethics, whose nature was confusing but if you had it you were a High-class Realtor and if you hadn't you were a...1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter IV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC
- The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies. Internal Revenue-Uncle Whiskers says I owe them a mint.1973, Lucas Webb, Stribling, page 188
- Synonyms:
- pettifogger
Verb
shyster (third-person singular simple present shysters, present participle shystering, simple past and past participle shystered)
- To act in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.
- To exploit (someone or something) in this way.
Synonyms of shyster
Forms of shyster
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shysters |
| alternative form | schister |
| alternative form | scheister |
| alternative form | sheister |
| alternative form | schyster |
| alternative form | shister |
| alternative form | shaista |
| alternative form | shiester |
| alternative form | schiester |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shysters |
| present participle | shystering |
| past participle | shystered |
| past | shystered |
Origin of shyster
US origin, 19th century. The etymology of the word is not generally agreed upon. The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as "of obscure origin," possibly deriving from a historical sense of shy meaning "disreputable", equivalent to shy + -ster. Other sources suggest the word derives from shicer, from the German Scheißer (“incompetent worthless person”), from scheißen (“to defecate”), probably influenced by -ster. Not related to shylock.
Words formed from shyster
Questions about shyster
- What does shyster mean?
- Shyster means someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.
- What part of speech is shyster?
- Shyster can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shyster?
- Shyster is pronounced /ˈʃaɪs.tə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shyster?
- The plural of shyster is shysters.
Words near shyster in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shyster (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shyster.wav.
Cite this entry: “shyster.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shyster. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.