scam, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang (original) (raw)

scam v.

1. (also scam out) to defraud, to trick.

1958		Vice Trap 31: He scammed me the stuff was yours.
1961		Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xvi: scam, to to shuck.
1996		S. Frank Get Shorty [film script] The three hundred grand a guy named Leo Devoe scammed off an airline. The three hundred grand Chili Palmer now has in his possession.
1998		J. Lansdale Rumble Tumble 26: If we can scam out on this motel bill [...] we can start rolling promptly.
2000		Indep. Rev. 26 Jan. 16: Darius Guppy [...] faked a jewel robbery, hoping to scam enough insurance money.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘Lessons’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 8 [TV script] You got people using each other, scamming each other.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] All this is assuming he wasn’t just scamming the money off you .
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘I don’t know exactly what all they were into. Scamming NGOs, fraudulent government contracts, moving the shells around’.
2006		P. Corris Undertow 202: ‘You must have got your hands on the money you’d scammed’.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 193: ‘How much am I being scammed for?’.

2. (also scam up) to carry out any form of scheme, usu. dubious or illegal.

1985		E. Leonard Glitz 272: I knew soon as you scammed your way in here, got the free ride.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 174: Three years scamming around Los Angeles.
1991		D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 162: Jackie says a lot of kids scam off their parents.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 79: He reached for the phone, wanting to scam up a new plan immediately.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 259: Despite aw his scamming he’s totally brassic.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 78: If she ever gets on that plane at all, it’ll be a staging post for some bigger scheme she’s scammed up.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] ‘[I]f the police knew I was scamming a visa, they could arrest me’.

3. (US Und.) to escape.

1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 124: Scam – to escape from prison.

4. (US campus, also scam on) to go in search of and look over the opposite sex for casual sex.

1985		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 9: scam – to check out [...] Let’s go to the pit and do some scamming on the guys.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 2: I can’t believe you’re scamming on that goob!
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 51: College students, who are perenially preoccupied with the quest for a partner for romance or sex, cruise, put it in cruise mode, check it out, scam, scope, or troll.
2004		T. Fey Mean Girls [movie script] You do not come to a party at my house with Gretchen and then scam on some poor, innocent girl [...] three days later.
2006		R. Antoni Carnival 54: JJ only scams black ladies.

scammed (adj.)

subjected to a confidence trick.

1999		Indep. Traveller 19 June 12: I met a fellow Englishman who had, minutes before, been ‘scammed’.

scammer (n.)

1. a confidence trickster.

1976		R. Dennis The One Dollar Rip-Off in Complete Hardman 1206: ‘I want you to pull some kind of scam on the greatest scammer of them all’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 22: Degenerate schemer, scammer, and gambler.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 75: Hoods, dopers, scammers, bikers and stick-up artists.
1999		Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 95: Fast-talking Miami scammer Pestario ‘The Pest’ Vargas.
2001		Indep. 12 July 12: The figures indicated that 1 per cent of all complaints were from ‘scammers’ looking for a free lunch.
2008		Simon & Price ‘Took’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 7 [TV script] Goodnight scammers. [...] Goodnight hustlers.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 2: I used to just come to watch all the hustlers, scammers and real Harlem thugs gamble.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] [S]tockmarket scammers and their penny dreadfuls.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 72: What a scammer, Uric thought.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 125: Irish roof-repair scammers were a thing—like Albanian ATM scammers.
2025		C. Hiaasen Fever Beach 86: ‘[H]e’s a goddamn liar. Some scammer tryin’ to set me up’.

2. (US campus) a flirt.

scamming (n.)

practising confidence tricks and similar schemes.

scam on (v.)

1. to look at another person’s possession, in the hope of being allowed to borrow it.

1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 7: scam on – eye something with the hopes of borrowing it.

2. see sense 4 above.