[Back-formation f. SWINDLER.]
1. intr. To act the swindler; to practise fraud, imposition, or mean artifice, esp. for the purpose of obtaining money.
1782. Bailey, Swindle, to get Money on false Pretences.
1802. James, Milit. Dict., Swindle,… a cant word signifying to cheat.
1820. Shelley, Hymn Merc., xlix. Those Who swindle, house-break, sheep-steal, and shop-lift.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxvi. Hardy English adventurers who have … swindled in all the capitals of Europe.
2. trans. To cheat, defraud (a person) out of money or property.
1803. Syd. Smith, Delphine, Wks. 1859, I. 46/1. Though she swindles Delphine out of her estate.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Christ., 243. Having been intrusted with the management of a bank in the Piscina publica, he swindled and ruined the depositors.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xiv. 162. It appears that del Monte has swindled his wife—his widow—out of every sixpence she possessed.
b. To bring into some specified condition by swindling.
1810. in Life Adam Clarke, viii. (1834), 192. I might swindle away this poor Sarah Boswell from your chapels to ours.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Oct. When I had paid the debt into which I had been swindled by her.
3. To get or gain by swindling. ? Obs.
1804. Revol. Plutarch, II. 306. The convention of Alexandria, which Buonaparte swindled from the trembling Melas.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. v. Lamotte … had … swindled a sum of three hundred livres from one of them.
