A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game.
One operating such a game.
verb
(intransitive) To cheat in the thimblerig game.
(transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To cheat (someone) by trickery.