pigeon drop n.
(US Und.) a confidence trick that involves dropping a wallet where a victim can find it or a scheme in which the con-man tells the victim that they have found a large sum of money and, if the victim will advance some money as a show of good faith, they can have a share in the ‘windfall’.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Somerset Herald (PA) 3 Nov. 1/5: An elderly gentleman [...] was ‘done’ out of £260 [...] by two scamps, who ‘dropped the pigeon’ on him. | |
| Arts and Miseries of Gambling 217: There is another fraud practised on men who cannot be enticed into a game at cards [...] this trick is called dropping the pigeon. | |
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 67: Among the short-con rackets, dropping the poke (also known as the pigeon-drop) is frequently used. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 75: dropping the pigeon Bunco game; finding envelope or wallet containing large amount of money, dropped by a confederate, the victim being made to believe it was really found (Worked mostly by negroes). | |
| Blue Knight 187: He used to [...] work with a Gypsy dame on pigeon drops. | |
| Mr Blue 299: [He] was doing six months in the local jail for playing a con game called ‘the pigeon drop’. | |
| N.Y. Times Mag. 3 Jan. 🌐 Like the Spanish Prisoner, the Pigeon Drop, and other classic cons [...] it is subject to ‘Fields’ Law’ (You can’t cheat an honest man). |
In compounds
(US Und.) a confidence trickster.
| Eve. Post (NY) 9 Apr. 2/6: I have just heard of a transaction, conducted by the managers of the Northerner [...] that would do honor to the [...] pigeon droppers of New York. | |
| Randolph Co. Jrnl 15 Apr. 2/5: Silent strikers, thimble-riggers, and political pigeon-droppers trooped forth. | |
| Nashville Union Amer. 17 Nov. 3/1: A Tennesseean Swindled [...] he took passage on one of the fiver boats at Cairo, and was followed by a pigeon-dropper. | |
 | Marshall Co. Repub. (Plymouth, IN) 29 Mar. 4/4: Suspected Felon Act [...] defines [...] 1. vagrancy [...] 4. a pigeon dropper. | |
| Jasper Wkly Courier 3 June 1/2: Any person, who shall be found resorting to any trick or device to procure money [...] such as ‘Mexican puzzle’ [...] , ‘thimble and ballls,’ ‘pocket book dropping’ [...] shall be known as pigeon droppers. | |
| Bryan Dly Eagle (TX) 8 Oct. 2/6: [...] only to discover later that the $1000 roll was simply a wad of paper with a $10 bill wrapped around it. This [...] was known as ‘pigeon dropping’, amnd the operators as ‘pigeon droppers’. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 21: A Lane, thou art; Poppa Stoppa / Is only a pigeon dropper! |
(US Und., also pigeon drop, pigeon game, dropping the pigeon) playing any form of confidence trick.
| N. Carolinian (Fayetteville, NC) 26 Oct. 1/6: It is surprising that [...] when the game of ‘drop pigeon’ has been published in all its modes, that victims to it are to be found. | |
| Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 26 Apr. 1/3: A young man [...] was diddled out of $70 at St Louis on Thursday last, by the pigeon dropping game. | |
| Camden Confederate (SC) 20 Nov. 1/4: Vagabonds and swindlers are ready to fleece any one [...] at dropping the pigeon. | |
| Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 16 June 4/3: A colored man [...] joined them and introduced the ‘pigeon’ game by dropping a small bag with a three-cent piece in it. | |
| Oregon Republican (Dallas, OR) 16 Mar. 4/2: Unwholesome ornithogy — dropping the pigeon! | |
| Indianapolis Leader 11 June 4/4: Report of the arrests made [...] for the year ending June 1, 1881: [...] Passing Counterfeit money...3 [...] Pigeon dropping...2. | |
| Broad Ax (Salt lake City, UT) 23 Oct. 3/2: This [...] was known as ‘pigeon dropping’. | |
| St. Louis Republican (MO) 7 Apr. 30/6: Two or more persons found acting together [...] for the purpose of pigeon dropping may be tried jointly. | |
| Aberdeen Wkly (MS) 27 Feb. 4/2: The two negroes who ‘dropped the pigeon’ on Berry were arrested. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Jan. 10A: There was no chance of stopping those skulls who played at pigeon-dropping. |