thimblerigger
thimblerigger noun: someone who cheats by thimblerigging, or similar tricks involving sleight of hand.
Noun
thimblerigger (plural thimbleriggers)
- Someone who cheats by thimblerigging, or similar tricks involving sleight of hand.
- “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock
- "Mrs Kane has been filling us in on some background information on Owen." The woman nodded, drumming her nicotined fingers. "And I have been assuring her that the boys who arrive here thimbleriggers and termagants are the least of our worries. But we do not send them out that way. Do we, Brother?"1980, Bernard MacLaverty, chapter 6, in Lamb, paperback edition, King Penguin, published 1981, page 50
Forms of thimblerigger
| plural | thimbleriggers |
|---|---|
| alternative form | thimble-rigger |
Origin of thimblerigger
From thimblerig + -er or thimble + rigger.
Questions about thimblerigger
- What does thimblerigger mean?
- Thimblerigger means someone who cheats by thimblerigging, or similar tricks involving sleight of hand.
- What part of speech is thimblerigger?
- Thimblerigger is a noun.
- What is the plural of thimblerigger?
- The plural of thimblerigger is thimbleriggers.
Words near thimblerigger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thimblerigger (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: En-us-thimblerigger.oga.
Cite this entry: “thimblerigger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thimblerigger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.