swindle, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

swindle n.

1. tossing to decide who pays for the next round of drinks.

1890–1904

2. (US) the cost, the bill; esp. in phr. what’s the swindle?

1835		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) V 146: [I] desired to know what the swindle would be for a new set of buttons [DA].
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 576: The Western man [...] when he wishes to know what he has to pay, he asks, What’s the damage? or, not so charitably, What’s the swindle?

3. a disappointment, something that proves to be a fraud and not what it was advertised as being.

1866		W.D. Howells Venetian Life i n.p.: Let us take, for example, that pathetic swindle, the Bridge of Sighs [F&H].
1900		Boys Of The Empire 23 Oct. 34: This school’s a swindle.
1911		Gem 7 Oct. 4: The blessed wind is as hot as the sun [...] The wind here is a swindle.
1964		E. Wilson Earl Wilson’s New York 38: [H]e felt sure that someday you would give up the Broadway column-writing swindle.

4. a lottery.

1870

Legal Reports, ‘Decision of Pigott, J.’ n.p.: [...] Lotteries were announced and commonly known as swindles [F&H].

5. (UK Und.) any form of criminal activity, e.g. drug dealing; there is no necessary implication of confidence trickery.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 9: I didn’t leave school wanting to be a coke dealer [...] not like today where all these kids want to be in on the swindle.

In compounds

swindlebug (n.)

(US) a fool.

1869

Sportsman (London) 16 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] He is spoken of in one [NYC] newspaper as ‘an addlepated swindlebug,’ and in another is addressed thus:—‘Good bye, old windy; good bye, old gaspipe; go home and soak your head’.

swindle sheet (n.) [orig. boxing use, the accounts made up by a manager and shown to his fighter; bitter fighters felt that these were rarely relevant to the actual money involved]

(orig. US) an expense account; any form of charges.

1916		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 80: Listening to a couple of new salesmen try to make their ‘swindle sheets’ match on expenses after a short trip.
1925		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 131: (Talking about the totals of the ‘swindle sheets’ sent out by the government) Printing the income tax lists is a good thing.
1933		C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 182: I never lost money on a swindle sheet (expense bill).
1940		Dly News (NY) 16 Aug. 4/3: Attorney V.J. Herwitz declared he had operated his office on a swindle sheet basis.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 231: swindle sheet A bill of no account.
1956		R. Chandler letter to Michael Gilbert 4 Jan. in Hiney & MacShane (2000) 217: It said re. solicitors that every time you called them up [...] they reached for their swindle sheets to put down a charge.
1960		Muncie Eve. Press (IN) 4 June 4/1: A couple of diligent reporters [...] uncovered some interesting swindle-sheet juggling in the records.
1971		M. Tak Truck Talk 161: Swindle sheet, the daily log book, mandatory for all drivers.
1973		H. Armstrong in Heller In This Corner (1974) 219: We always used to call it [i.e. the management accounts] the ‘bloodbath’ the ‘swindle sheet’.