| 释义 |
▪ I. scam, n. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).|skæm|
[Origin obscure.]
1. a. A trick, a ruse; a swindle, a racket. Also attrib.
1963Time 28 June 48/2 He..worked..as a carny huckster... ‘It was a full scam.’ 1971Harper's Mag. Feb. 89 A gambling house is a sitting duck to every con man or outlaw who comes through; he is invariably convinced that he has a scam that you have never seen before. 1972Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 2 July 19/6 It was necessary to the success of the latest ‘scam’ that it be worked in places where $25 chips were constantly in play. 1975J. F. Burke Death Trick (1976) iv. 64 Hustling of any kind he could live with in his hotel, dope-dealing, selling ass, almost any scam, even burglary. 1976M. Machlin Pipeline v. 58 Gamblers, pimps, whores, conmen, and scam artists of every persuasion were drawn to the scene like sharks. 1978M. Puzo Fools Die xii. 131 The bribe-taking scam had been going on for nearly two years without any kind of hitch.
b. spec. A fraudulent bankruptcy (see quot. 1966). Also attrib.
1966Wall Street Jrnl. 9 Sept. 1/1 (heading) ‘Fat Man’ Scolnick & ‘scams’... They're known as ‘scam’ operators, promoters who set up ostensibly legitimate businesses, order large amounts of merchandise on credit, sell it fast and strictly for cash—and then go ‘bankrupt’, leaving their creditors unpaid. 1968J. M. Ullman Lady on Fire (1969) xiv. 181 ‘The main plan's to go bankrupt... The suppliers will be stuck with unpaid bills for millions. There's a name for that—’ ‘Scam game,’ Forbes said. 1974N.Y. Times 8 July 26/1 Organized crime is stealing millions of dollars from the public through planned fraudulent bankruptcies, called ‘scams’ by the underworld.
2. A story; a rumour; information.
1964Guardian 8 July 7/6 ‘People want the 1930s all over again: a thousand naked chorus girls dancing in a pink smog under crystal chandeliers on a revolving staircase on an Alp.’.. ‘Didn't someone tell us once that Hollywood went bust with that scam?’ 1966Amer. Speech XLI. 281 Lowdown, scam, the word, information. 1972W. McGivern Caprifoil (1973) viii. 137 There's been a security break... He's scheduled a press conference... The scam is he's going to break what we know on Spencer. 1972J. Wambaugh Blue Knight (1973) i. 28, I paid them [sc. informers] from my pocket, and when I made the bust on the scam they gave me, I made it look like I lucked on to the arrest. 1976New Musical Express 17 Apr. 10/2 No, still no scam on Donny and Marie.
▪ II. scam, v. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).|skæm|
[Origin obscure: cf. prec.]
intr. and trans. To perpetrate a fraud; to cheat, trick, or swindle. Hence ˈscamming vbl. n. (in sense 1 b of scam n.).
1963Time 28 June 48/2 My boss was scammin' from the public, and I was scammin' from him. 1966Wall Street Jrnl. 9 Sept. 1/1 ‘Scam’ originally was a carnival term meaning ‘to fleece the public’. 1974Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ont.) 9 Apr. 4/1 Scamming..is a form of criminal bankruptcy in which a front man buys out a legitimate firm and then uses the credit rating of the firm to buy large quantities of merchandise. Ibid. 4/3 Scamming, he said, ranks second only to bookmaking in financial importance to criminals. 1977New Yorker 30 May 96/2 Local citizens..try to avoid being scammed by the familiar tergiversations of city politicians.
▪ III. scam
obs. form of shame; var. scaum v., Sc. |