Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A game, as of cards, in which one player has no chance against another, as when the cards are stocked or other tricks are played to cheat or fleece; any confidence-game.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Life's a skin-game," he was fond of repeating, and on this one note he rang the changes.
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The skin-game artists and shilabers, cheaters, flimflammers, and medicine men flock to these gatherings as flies to a picnic.
David Lannarck, Midget An Adventure Story George S. Harney
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I suppose it's some parental promise she's made, or some skin-game buyer has been through here and threw a wrench in the gears.
David Lannarck, Midget An Adventure Story George S. Harney
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And because grafters, shilabers, and skin-game artists follow circuses, the public thinks these are a part of it.
David Lannarck, Midget An Adventure Story George S. Harney
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No sooner did I get together a sort of pile and start out for the old town, when some smooth stranger would come along and steer me up against some skin-game, and back I'd have to go to work.
The Little Nugget 1928
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Not until popular government was established could they get in to open their skin-game, which was better and safer for them than ordinary highway faring.
In Our Town William Allen White 1906
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"Life's a skin-game," he was fond of repeating, and on this one note he rang the changes.
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"Ye tried to kill a thousand-dollar bird by a skin-game, and I'll have it out of your hide."
The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul Holman Day 1900
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She was very loyal, and fortunately rather flyaway both in mind and body; before long she always joined him in his feeling that the whole transaction had been just the usual 'skin-game' on the part of Providence to keep them out of their expectations.
Tatterdemalion John Galsworthy 1900
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"Life's a skin-game," he was fond of repeating, and on this one note he rang the changes.
The God of His Fathers: Tales of the Klondyke Jack London 1896
qms commented on the word skin-game
A trickster betrays his sly aim
Assailing his foe without shame.
To charge voting fraud
In no way seems odd
From one who has played the skin-game.
August 15, 2016