grifter

From grift +‎ -er; or probably an alteration of grafter (“a corrupt person, one who accepts bribes”), which is essentially a doublet of the same word. Originally circus slang, gradually widened in sense. First attested in 1906.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪftɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪftə/

grifter (plural grifters)

1. (informal, originally Canada, US) A con artist; someone who pulls confidence games; a swindler, scammer, huckster, hustler, and/or charlatan.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:confidence trickster

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep:

     We're all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel.

   • 1958, Robert Bloch, That Hell-Bound Train:

     That was the train the drunks and the sinners rode—the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew.

   • 2020 November 12, Megan O’Grady, “How ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ Foretold Our Era of Grifting”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     From the small-time grifters like Anna Sorokin, who adopted the last name Delvey to masquerade in downtown New York circles as a European heiress for four years before she was convicted of second-degree grand larceny in 2019, […] all impostors come equipped with a tall tale and a look to match.

2. (colloquial, especially Internet) A manipulator or otherwise generally corrupt person who "games" a system, group of people, or other entity for selfish gains; especially of a political "sell-out" perceived as lacking integrity.

• “grifter”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

grifter

1. indefinite plural of grift