swindle
Syllables: swin·dle/ˈswɪndəl/
swindle verb: to defraud.
Verb
swindle (third-person singular simple present swindles, present participle swindling, simple past and past participle swindled)
- To defraud.
- The two men swindled the company out of $160,000.
- Such Nations cannot have a King to command them; can only have this or the other scandalous swindling Copper Captain, constitutional Gilt Mountebank, or other the like unsalutary entity by way of King; and the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children in a frightful and tragical manner...1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.)
- To obtain (money or property) by fraudulent or deceitful methods.
- She swindled more than £200 out of me.
- For a player in a losing position to play a clever move that provokes an error from the opponent, thus achieving a win or a draw.
- Synonyms:
- be sold a pup
Noun
swindle (plural swindles)
- An instance of swindling.
- There were men there who had committed merciless robberies, cruel murders, heartless swindles, abominable depravities.1914, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 16, in The Subterranean Brotherhood
- [T]he scandal was the pretty common one of a corrupt agreement between hotel proprietors and a salesman who took and gave secret commissions, so that his business had a monopoly of all the drink sold in the place. It wasn't even an open slavery like an ordinary tied house; it was a swindle at the...1935, G. K. Chesterton, The Scandal of Father Brown
- Anything that is deceptively not what it appears to be.
- An instance wherein a player in a losing position plays a clever move that provokes an error from the opponent, thus achieving a win or a draw.
Proper noun capitalized: Swindle
Swindle (plural Swindles)
- A surname.
swindle meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
swindle in Tamil
- ஏமாற்று, சூழ்ச்சி, மோசடி
swindle in Urdu
- چٹ کر جانا, غبن کرنا
swindle in Malayalam
- ചതിക്കുക, വഞ്ചിച്ചു പണം പിടുങ്ങുക, പറ്റിക്കുക, കബളിപ്പിക്കുക
swindle in Kannada
- to swindle
- ಹೊಡೆ hoḍe
More languagesFewer languages
- swindle in Punjabi
- ਲੁੱਟਣਾ luṭṭaṇā
- swindle in Nepali
- छक्याउनु chakyāunu
- swindle in Arabic
- غَشَّ ḡašša, جَدَعَ jadaʕa
- swindle in Malay
- tipu, penipuan
- swindle in Indonesian
- menipu, mengecoh
- swindle in Thai
- โกง gohng, คดโกง kót gohng
- swindle in Vietnamese
- lừa đảo, lừa tiền
Examples of swindle in a sentence
- It describes the period in which an embezzler has stolen a man's money but the victim does not yet realize he's been swindled.2015 December 3, Tracy Alloway, “There's Been a Bezzle-Fueled Boom in Bonds”, in Markets, Bloomberg News, retrieved 16 Aug 2021:
- It wasn't even an open slavery like an ordinary tied house; it was a swindle at the expense of everybody the manager was supposed to serve.1935, G. K. Chesterton, The Scandal of Father Brown:
Synonyms of swindle
Forms of swindle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | swindles |
| present participle | swindling |
| past participle | swindled |
| past | swindled |
| Noun | |
| plural | swindles |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Swindles |
Origin of swindle
Back-formation from swindler, from German Schwindler, from German schwindeln, from Middle High German swindeln, swindelen, from Old High German swintilōn, frequentative of the verb swintan, from Proto-West Germanic *swindan (“to diminish”). See also Modern German schwindeln, Danish svindel and svindle, Dutch zwindelen and zwendelen, Yiddish שווינדל (shvindl), Low German swinneln, Middle English swinden (“to languish, waste away”).
* As an English surname, variant of Swindell. * As a German surname, Americanized from Schwindell, a diminutive of the lost Middle High German adjective swinde (“impetuous, wild”).
Words formed from swindle
Phrases with swindle
Words that rhyme with swindle
Questions about swindle
- What does swindle mean?
- Swindle means to defraud.
- What is swindle in Tamil?
- Swindle in Tamil is ஏமாற்று, சூழ்ச்சி, மோசடி. See Swindle meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use swindle in a sentence?
- It describes the period in which an embezzler has stolen a man's money but the victim does not yet realize he's been swindled.
- What part of speech is swindle?
- Swindle can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce swindle?
- Swindle is pronounced /ˈswɪndəl/.
- What is the past tense of swindle?
- The past tense of swindle is swindled.
Words near swindle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swindle (page history and authors); Swindle (page history and authors); swindle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swindle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swindle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಹೊಡೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਲੁੱਟਣਾ (Punjabi) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swindle.wav.
Cite this entry: “swindle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swindle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.