noun Street Slang

bunco

BUN-koh · noun · slang

A swindle or con game; to swindle.

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Definitions

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Bunco (also bunko) is a confidence swindle or fraud, and as a verb means to cheat someone out of money. Police 'bunco squads' targeted such scams.

“They ran a classic bunco on the out-of-towners with a fixed dice game.”
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bunco In A Sentence

They ran a classic bunco on the out-of-towners with a fixed dice game.

Origin & Usage

American, from Spanish 'banca,' a card game; entered underworld slang in the 1870s.

Variants bunko

People Also Ask

What does 'bunco' mean?

Bunco is a confidence swindle or con game. As a verb, to bunco someone means to cheat them out of money through fraud.

What was a 'bunco squad'?

A bunco squad was a police unit dedicated to investigating and shutting down confidence scams, fraud, and swindles.

Where does the word come from?

It comes from the Spanish 'banca,' a card game, and entered American underworld slang in the 1870s. It is also spelled 'bunko.'

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