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Swindle
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 An instance of swindling.
"There were men there who had committed merciless robberies, cruel murders, heartless swindles, abominable depravities."
- 2 the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme wordnet
- 3 Anything that is deceptively not what it appears to be.
- 4 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.
- 1 To defraud. transitive
"The two men swindled the company out of $160,000."
- 2 deprive of by deceit wordnet
- 3 To obtain (money or property) by fraudulent or deceitful methods. ambitransitive
"She swindled more than £200 out of me."
- 4 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.
Etymology
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”).
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”).
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