▪ I. bunco, n. U.S. slang.
(ˈbʌŋkəʊ)
Also banco, bunko.
[Said to be ad. Sp. banca, a card-game similar to monte.]
A swindle perpetrated by means of card-sharping or some form of confidence trick. Freq. attrib. or as adj.; esp. bunco-steerer, a swindler; so bunco-steering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1872 Chicago Tribune 18 Oct. 8/4 A quintet of bunco thieves were tried by jury. 1875 Ibid. 30 Sept. 4/2 The criminal classes..proceeded to introduce the business of ‘bunko-steering’. Ibid. 1 Oct. 4/3 A ‘bunko-steerer’ seems to be a subordinate confidence-man. Ibid. 8 Dec. 12/3 This marriage was merely a ‘confidence’ or ‘bunko’ game on both sides. 1883 Philada. Times No. 2892. 2 Tom's method of bunko was the well-known lottery game. Ibid., There is not a smoother-tongued fellow in the great army of bunko-steerers. 1883 Standard 1 Dec. 2/4 ‘Bunko men’, and swindlers..pick up a very good living. 1901 S. E. White Westerners xiii. 94 Bunco men can clean him out in a gambling joint. 1920 H. Crane Let. 24 Feb. (1965) 33 It's the old bunko stuff about ‘working from the bottom up’. 1929 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 378/2 I'm glad we got Aggie by a bunco-steering trick. 1963 Spectator 5 July 9 The bunco-artists from the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party. |
▪ II. ˈbunco, v. U.S. slang.
Also bunko.
[f. prec.]
trans. To swindle or cheat.
| 1875 Chicago Tribune 6 July 8/1 The fugitive is the same person who bunkoed a stranger out of $75 recently. 1883 Philada. Times No. 2892. 2 A Reading banker bunkoed. 1892 Congress Rec. Mar. 2651/2 The farmer is always buncoed by the three-card monte, green-goods protection shouter. 1926 J. Black You can't Win xiii. 174 The way to sell a brass brick is to bunko yourself first into the belief that your brick is solid gold. |