con artist

noun

Informal.

1. a person adept at lying, cajolery, or glib self-serving talk.

2. a person adept at swindling by means of confidence games; swindler.

Example Sentences

What kind of con artist cons the con man into thinking he believes this bile.

From Salon

It’s easy to see why Chishiya has such a magnetic appeal at the close of a year when audiences obsessed over stories of con artists infiltrating society’s most exclusive strata.

From Salon

The con artist promises his audience they're in on the con, and they will work together to cheat someone else.

From Salon

“Prospective actors steer clear of Mark Measures. He is a con artist,” actor Kate Amundsen wrote in a comment posted last July.

From Los Angeles Times

The con artist in Ritter’s novel is a young woman with a murky past and visions of absconded riches who is ensnared in an elaborate swindle that recalls David Mamet at his most labyrinthine.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• con man 
• crook 
• hustler 
• swindler 

When To Use

What does con artist mean?

A con artist is a person who cheats people out of something (usually money or other valuables) through some kind of deceitful scheme. More generally, the term is used to refer to someone who’s good at deceiving people for their own gain.In con artist, the word con is short for confidence, a reference to how they gain their victims’ trust in order to cheat them. The same term is used in con man (a male con artist). The word artist in this context simply refers to a person who is skillful (in this case, at trickery and deception).Example: I can’t believe how many people are falling for this guy’s tricks—he’s clearly a con artist who’s going to cheat and pocket all the money.