English Explanatory Dictionary

spiv

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods, especially during World War II.
  2. A flashy con artist, often homeless, who lives by his wits.
  3. A low and common thief.
  4. A slacker; one who shirks responsibility.

Pronunciation

/spɪv/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spiv.wav

Word forms

spiv spivs

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from spiff, spiffy. Spiv was the nickname of Henry Bagster, a Londoner arrested a number of times in 1904-6 for activities as described below, and may have been the archetype. Also possibly from Romani spiv (“sparrow”), as active and opportunistic.

Synonyms

sharper chiseler wide boy bunco-steerer charlatan cheat cheater cozener defrauder finagler fleecer fraud fraudmeister fraudster humbug goldbrick grifter gull gyp landshark pickpenny rook scammer scamp Scandaroon schemester slicker spieler swindler trapan trepan bristler bunco artist con artist confidence artist confidence trickster conman flimflammer lugger magsman mountebank saltimbanco sharpster sharker shark-gull smooth operator spiv

Derived words

spivish spivvery spivvish spivvy
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary