chouse

American

[chous] / tʃaʊs /

verb (used with object)

choused, chousing

to swindle; cheat (often followed by of orout of ).

noun

a swindle.
Archaic. a swindler.
Archaic. a dupe.

Other Word Forms

chouser noun

Etymology

Origin of chouse

First recorded in 1600–10; perhaps to be identified with chiaus

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Obviously, the bishop is a bidone, a small-time swindler, and the camera has just watched him chouse some country chumpkins.

From Time Magazine Archive

A-set-tin' the law ter chouse a old man out'n money, fur gittin' mad an' sayin' ye stole his only darter.

From His "Day In Court" 1895 by Frost, A. B. (Arthur Burdett)

Rightly viewed, calf-butchering accounts for Titus Andronicus, the only play—ain’t it?—that the Stratford Shakespeare ever wrote; and yet it is the only one everybody tries to chouse him out of, the Baconians included.

From Is Shakespeare Dead? From my autobiography. by Twain, Mark

Whereof I be all in a quandary, for it do seem I wus within an ames ace of a havin bin chouse flickur'd meself.

From Anna St. Ives by Holcroft, Thomas

The history of chouse exemplifies the same tendency.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023