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War and Peace vocabulary
564 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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sharper
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synonyms: thimblerigger, ambodexter, blackleg, dicer, grifter, chevalier dʼindustrie ???
► definition
Definition:a swindler, especially at cards
painting: by Caravaggio, 1595
► uses
Uses:
Then he recalled the scandal with a sharper, to whom he had lost money, and given a promissory note, and against whom he had himself lodged a complaint, asserting that he had cheated him.
Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)
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“So you are not afraid to play with me?” repeated Dolokhov, and as if about to tell a good story he put down the cards, leaned back in his chair, and began deliberately with a smile:
“Yes, gentlemen, I’ve been told there’s a rumor going about Moscow that I’m a sharper, so I advise you to be careful.”
“Come now, deal!” exclaimed Rostov.
Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman
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a fourth to be sharpers; whence it came, what Polydore Virgil says of a certain great house,
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World (1726)
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