A person who makes money through small-scale swindling or dishonest schemes, especially through confidence tricks.
From 'grift,' possibly from Yiddish 'grif' or German 'greifen' (to grab). Emerged in American English in the early 1900s as slang for petty fraud. The '-er' suffix makes it an agent noun describing someone who grifts.
Grifters specialize in the 'con'—short for 'confidence game'—which literally means winning someone's trust before cheating them. It's the psychological opposite of theft: instead of sneaking around, grifters get people to willingly hand over money!
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