gyp n.1
1. (also gip) a thief.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Pawnbroker’s Daughter 166: Never a gyp found a master so much too poor to rob! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum 37: gip A thief. | |
| Leicester Chron. 21 June 12/2: Here, take this with you; every gip you show it to will be friendly. | |
| Century Dict. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 223: Deal with gyps and that’s what you get. | |
| Down Among the Meths Men 15: Harry the Ram was sometimes called Harry the Knife or Harry the Gyp. | |
| (con. 1890s) in Hellhole 161: Criminals whom Molly still designates by the names with which she first learned to identify them: [...] ‘griffs’ – young thieves, and ‘gips’ – old ones. |
2. (also jip) an act of deception, a fraud or hoax.
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 41: gyp [...] the act of short-changing; a defrauding by substitution; an action that belies a professed sincerity. | |
| Your Broadway & Mine 21 Dec. [synd. col.] Liveright [...] fell for the racket [...] spending over one hundred bucks on the gyp. | |
| Rough Stuff 123: We were peddling drachm bindles from twelve to sixteen dollars, and were giving 48 or 54 grains to the drachm which was putting a jip on the addicts again. | |
| Big Clock (2002) 94: After I paid for the 85c. lunch, a gyp, and already I had indigestion. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 66: It’s a gyp. He should have been disqualified. | |
| Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 48: ‘Years ago the Hershey Bars were the big things.’ ‘Nowadays they’re a gyp,’ said Mrs Gneiss. | |
| Jones Men 97: It’s a gyp, you know what I mean. | |
| More Tales of the City (1984) 79: Was last night a gyp? | |
| Pulp Fiction [film script] 44: ‘It’s been built up too much.’ ‘What a gyp.’. | |
 | Twitter/X 5 Apr. 🌐 Looks like I may be the only person in Brooklyn or NJ who didn't feel any trace of the earthquake. What a gyp. |
3. a cheat, a swindler; one who fails to pay his due debts.
| Sun (NY) 19 Nov. 9/7: The auto gyp has two ways of swindling victims. | |
| ‘West Goes South’ in Everybody’s Oct. 🌐 Do we look like a coupla gyps? | |
| ‘Winter Kill’ in Goulart (1967) 102: The guy is a heel and a gyp. He’s got no more intention of paying it than —. | |
| George Spelvin Chats 46: Bulletins, which old Hat addresses to herself, calling the Spelvins all kinds of louses and gyps. | |
| Show Biz from Vaude to Video 567: Chiz – chiseler; a gyp. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 802: gyp – A confidence game or confidence worker. | |
| (con. 1916) Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 136: That general human gyp ‘Luce’ Thayer. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 185: gyp. [...] a swindler. |
4. see gyp joint
5. see gyppo n.1 (1)
In compounds
a swindler.
| Amer. Stationer 87 8: Tampering with name plates, patent numbers, etc., is a temptation to the ‘gyp’ artist. | |
| Broadway Racketeers 8243: The large rewards [...] naturally attract the lame-brain species of gyp artist. | |
| People, Yes 36: Everything’s a racket, only the gyp artists get by. | |
| $1,000 a Week, and Other Stories 196: No, sir, I don’t claim to being the gyp artist that Gus is. | |
| Godfather 226: The flimflam home improvement gyp artists, the door-to-door con men were politely warned. | |
| Maledicta III:2 160: gyp artist; gypper n Swindler; from the stereotype of the thieving Gypsy. | |
| (trans.) Weary Men 39: My thought on seeing the woman had naturally been, Aha, a gyp artist! |
(US) anywhere, esp. a club, bar etc, where the unwary will be swindled.
| Ctte Fourteen Annual Report 22: They visit the closed door club believing that they are being taken to a glorified bordell. If they land in a real ‘gyp joint’ they hastily call for their check (in a rage) and leave without tipping the hostess. | |
| My Four Weeks in France 102: The store I first selected was a gyp joint and wanted twenty-seven francs for a cap. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 42: I found a piece of steel in my chicken soup. Soitenly!! Soitenly!! Spring chicken. This ain’t no gyp joint. | |
| ‘Twenty-five Bucks’ in Short Stories (1937) 183: Gyps, speakeasies [...] mouldy dumps and joints. | |
| Cop Remembers 299: The creep joints and panel workers of the old days have been replaced by the gyp joints of the prohibition era. | |
| Dead Ringer 86: And you thought the carney was a gyp joint. Kid, we give value. | |
| Shaking the Nickel Bush (1994) 228: He wouldn’t [...] let them take him to some gyp joint and run up a bill he wouldn’t be able to pay. | |
| Vulture (1996) 103: A 42nd Street gyp joint. | |
| Maledicta III:2 160: gyp flat; gyp joint n [DAS 1956] Dishonest business establishment. | |
| Warning : 101: I guess maybe Red’s ring that he got in a gyp joint in that spick town acrost from Del Rio done it. | |
| Atomic Kid 229: We dig the rules and we dig ’em deep. This ain’t no gyp joint, and we ain’t into no bamboozlement. |
(US) a female swindler.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Maledicta III:2 160: gyp moll n Female swindler. |
(US) swindling, fraud.
| Dark Hazard 68: To tell you the truth, I never had much use for dogs or dog-men. It's a gyp racket. | |
| High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 393: I’m glad I’m in an honest gyp-racket now. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Maledicta III:2 160: gyp racket n Dishonest activity. |
In phrases
to be swindled, cheated.
| Rising Sun 8 Jan. 3/2: He sprang to his post and let fly / And we were the blokes who got gyp. | |
| ‘Gun Guile’ in Greater Gangster Stories Feb. 🌐 Wayne sneered [...] ‘You boys seem to be gettin’ the gyp!’. |