Definition
A swindler or con artist who tricks people out of their money through deception, especially in 16th-century slang.
Etymology
From cony 'rabbit' (the victim) plus catcher, from the 1500s when rabbits were commonly trapped and hunted. This term metaphorically compared defrauded victims to helpless rabbits caught by hunters, reflecting how criminals exploited people.
Kelly Says
Conycatcher is one of history's greatest slang terms—it reveals how 16th-century London criminals saw their victims as passive prey, and Shakespeare himself used variations of this term in plays, showing how pervasive fraud was in Elizabethan street life.
Translations
AMአማርኛ
ማንኛውም
ma-n-ny-a-wm
ARالعربية
مُغْرِم
mugh-ree-m
CACatalà
enganyador
en-ga-na-do-r
CSČeština
podvodník
po-d-vo-d-nik
DEDeutsch
Betrüger
bet-roo-ger
ELΕλληνικά
απάτη
a-pa-tee
ESEspañol
tramposo
tra-m-poh-so
FAفارسی
دروغگو
dar-oo-goo
FRFrançais
arnaqueur
ar-na-ker
HIहिन्दी
धोखाधड़ी
dho-kha-dhe-ree
IDBahasa Indonesia
penipu
pe-ni-pu
ITItaliano
imbroglione
im-broh-lee-o-neh
MSBahasa Melayu
penipu
pe-ni-pu
MYမြန်မာ
ပုံမှန်
po-m-han
NLNederlands
oplichter
op-li-cher
PLPolski
oszust
oh-soo-st
PTPortuguês
golpista
go-l-pis-ta
RUРусский
обманщик
ob-man-shchik
SVSvenska
bedragare
be-dra-ga-reh
SWKiswahili
mchezo
m-che-zo
TAதமிழ்
குடும்பம்
ku-dum-bam
TLTL
mang-a-mang
mang-a-mang
UKУкраїнська
обманщик
ob-man-shchik
VITiếng Việt
lừa đảo
lyu-a-dao
ZUZU
umshayeli
oom-sha-ye-li