How to Use con man in a Sentence

con man

noun
Definition of con mannext
  • The story follows Susy in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a con man and two ex-convicts.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 5 May 2023
  • Anyone willing to go that far, the con man’s theory goes, must be telling the truth.
    — Brad Raffensperger, National Review, 17 Jan. 2024
  • The con man had been charged with second-degree murder.
    — Harold Dow, CBS News, 15 June 2024
  • While Ben is honest and skilled with a gun, Sam is a sly con man who depends on his clever thinking and schemes.
    — Lynnette Nicholas, Essence, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Purlie’s a benign enough con man whose con is social justice.
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2023
  • What is the validity of a bill of sale, the novel poses, when any white con man can claim the nearest Black person as his own?
    — Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Legendary’s Draemond Winding is not a con man, just an empty suit—Goliath with a sales pitch.
    — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2023
  • But Tartuffe is a hypocrite and a con man, who his scheming to seduce Orgon’s wife, Elmire, and get his hands on Orgon’s fortune.
    — Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Mar. 2024
  • In each one, con man Tom Ripley comes dangerously close to being caught or killed.
    — Adrienne Wyper, theweek, 23 Jan. 2024
  • Bradley Cooper stars as Stan Carlisle, a con man who learns how to fake (and monetize) psychic powers through his time in a 1940s carnival.
    — Ilana Gordon, EW.com, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Hugh Grant, who was not in attendance at Friday’s premiere, plays the group’s primary foil, as an ally turned con man.
    — Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Treat yourself to seasons 1 and 2 (featuring Christopher Walken as a charming con man) before joining the gang for one last caper.
    — Ew Staff Published, EW.com, 31 May 2024
  • The con man, now facing the possibility of decades behind bars, pleaded with Schofield to remain on bail until his sentencing.
    — Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News, 20 May 2024
  • While devising an escape plan involving Henry and the (unseen) woman prison counselor who has taken a shine to the newcomer, Gene spouts wisdom like a con man on a book tour.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2023
  • In this melodious throwback, a traveling con man who's in need of money persuades River City natives to purchase instruments and uniforms from him and start a band.
    — Lauren Hubbard, Town & Country, 16 May 2023
  • For much of his adult life, police and court records show, Staveley had been a serial con man, probation violator, and harasser of women.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2023
  • The main substance of the movie is Cornwell’s reminiscences of his father, Ronnie, a con man with big dreams and reckless schemes who struggled hectically to stay a step ahead of creditors and the law, and didn’t always succeed.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2023
  • The new Netflix series follows the infamous fictional con man across over 200 locations.
    — Emily Zemler, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Apr. 2024
  • That’s because the kooky performances help bring every wild scene and gothic set piece to life, as an oddly macabre clan (helmed by Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston) spars with a con man who resembles their lost relative.
    — Chris Snellgrove, EW.com, 16 Apr. 2024
  • Milton was convicted of fraud charges after prosecutors portrayed him as a con man after starting his company in a Utah basement six years earlier.
    — Larry Neumeister, Fortune, 18 Dec. 2023
  • Cook had embarked on a lucrative lecture tour by this point, fueling suspicions that America’s most popular explorer was a con man.
    — Time, 15 July 2023
  • The story of a con man who won a freakish election by hoodwinking everyone around him was easier to take than one about complex political dynamics and bad decision-making in the suburbs of Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley.
    — Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2023
  • Culture has learned a lesson from literature’s most prominent con man: A personality morphs and stabilizes depending on the circumstances, and the most common form of art being performed right now is the continual reinvention of the self.
    — Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 19 Apr. 2024
  • About 2 million California Republicans voted for a lying, uncivil, fraudulent con man.
    — George Skelton, The Mercury News, 3 Apr. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'con man.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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