thimblerig

Syllables: thim·ble·rig/ˈθɪmbəlɹɪɡ/

thimblerig noun: 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.

Image: Hieronymus Bosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

thimblerig (countable and uncountable, plural thimblerigs)

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.
- He’ll muddle away the Begum’s fortune at thimble-rig, be caught picking pockets, and finish on board the hulks.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 45, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
- ‘Great Barnums?’ says I. ‘You're a ringer for a circus thimblerig man.’1908, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Modern Rural Sports”, in The Gentle Grafter, New York, N.Y.: The McClure Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

shell game
One operating such a game.

Synonyms:

thimblerigger

Verb

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

(intransitive) To operate a thimblerig game.
- Old Pratt is a different kind of crook—a psalm-singing, pussyfooted old buccaneer, teaching a Bible class on Sundays and thimblerigging in Wall Street on week days.1916, Irvin S. Cobb, “Enter the villain”, in Local Color
(ambitransitive, figuratively) To cheat (someone) by trickery.
- The favor is to you. I do not permit any man to thimblerig his debts to me into my debts to him.1905, David Graham Phillips, The Plum Tree

thimblerig meaning in Tagalog

thimblerig in Tagalog

sleight-of-hand betting game — see also shell game: tatlong-didal

Synonyms of thimblerig

Forms of thimblerig

Noun
plural	thimblerigs
alternative form	thimble-rig
Verb
third-person singular present	thimblerigs
present participle	thimblerigging
past participle	thimblerigged
past	thimblerigged

Origin of thimblerig

From thimble + rig.

Words formed from thimblerig

thimbleriggery

Questions about thimblerig

What does thimblerig mean?: Thimblerig means 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.
What is thimblerig in Tagalog?: Thimblerig in Tagalog is tatlong-didal. See Thimblerig meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is thimblerig?: Thimblerig can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce thimblerig?: Thimblerig is pronounced /ˈθɪmbəlɹɪɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of thimblerig?: The plural of thimblerig is thimblerigs.

Words near thimblerig in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: thimblerig (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thimblerig.wav.

Cite this entry: “thimblerig.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thimblerig. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.