bunco

English

Alternative forms

• bunko

Etymology

Reportedly from Spanish banca, a card game.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbʌŋkəʊ/
• Rhymes: -ʌŋkəʊ

Noun

bunco (plural buncos)

1. (US, slang) A swindle or confidence trick.
2. A parlour game played in teams with three dice, originating in England but popular among suburban women in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century.

Derived terms

• bunco squad
• bunco-steerer

Verb

bunco (third-person singular simple present buncos, present participle buncoing, simple past and past participle buncoed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, US, slang) To swindle (someone).

   • 1910, Erwin Rosen, In the Legion^[1], edition HTML, The Gutenberg Project, published 2012:

     They felt very sorry (so they said) for the poor old eleventh company having been buncoed into taking such an awful pack of useless recruits.