Charley-pitcher is an obsolete British slang term for a thimblerigger — someone who runs the shell-and-pea con, also known as the three-card trick.
Charley-pitcher is an obsolete British slang term for a thimblerigger — someone who runs the shell-and-pea con, also known as the three-card trick. The term belongs to the vocabulary of 19th-century British street crime and fairground sharp practice. 'Charley' was a common generic name for a street person or rogue; 'pitcher' suggests someone who pitches a game or sells something fraudulently. Entirely archaic; of historical linguistic and social history interest.
The Charley-pitchers worked the edges of the market, pulling in the gullible with their thimble games.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(obsolete, slang) A thimblerigger.
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