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.

(intransitive) To cheat in the thimblerig game. / (transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To cheat (someone) by trickery.

present participle of thimblerig

simple past tense and past participle of thimblerig

plural of thimblerig

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of thimblerig

plural of thimblerigger

One who cheats by thimblerigging, or tricks of legerdemain.