conning 1 of 3

verb (1)

present participle of con
1
as in studying
to commit to memory usually candidates con their entire campaign speech, right down to the jokes they supposedly ad-lib

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in examining
to look over closely (as for judging quality or condition) seemed to be conning his face for any sign of uncertainty

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

conning

2 of 3

verb (2)

present participle of con
1
as in cheating
to rob by the use of trickery or threats a fly-by-night operator who had conned hundreds of would-be homeowners out of their hard-earned money

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2
as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue tried to con me into thinking that he had actually won the lottery

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

conning

3 of 3

verb (3)

present participle of conn
as in steering
to operate or control the course of there was white-knuckle tension as the captain conned the gunboat through the mine-infested harbor

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of conning
Verb
There was at least one other incident in which Bustillo is accused of conning a player out of $4,000. — Sofia Saric, Miami Herald, 28 May 2026 Looking to turn the tables, 80-year-old Poppy Montgomery launches a mission to defraud the fraudsters conning the elderly online. — Diya Chacko, Oc Register, 18 May 2026 How to get out of an awkward situation in order to avoid booking that plane ticket back to New York, where nothing much awaits her, after conning her way into a stranger’s home? — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2026 Often these are aimed at either conning applicants into paying up-front fees or providing personal information that the scammers later use to gain access to credit in the victim’s name. — Kathy Kristof, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Mar. 2026 Their father, my grandfather, was a career low-life criminal and was in jail all the time for forgery and conning people. — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2025 Officials allege that Bester bribed several prison employees into helping with his escape plan, including conning his way into an isolation cell that was located near a fire escape and in an area with limited cameras, per the docuseries, NBC News and GroundUp. — Jordana Comiter, PEOPLE, 17 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for conning
  1. studying
  2. examining
  3. cheating
  4. tricking
  5. steering
  6. learning
  7. surveying
  8. hustling
Verb
  • Greyson said nearly five decades of studying near-death experiences has convinced him there is probably something after death.
    — Michael Collins, USA Today, 30 Aug. 2026
  • After studying hospitality in Switzerland and working in New York with chef Daniel Boulud, Kfoury returned to Lebanon, only to live through another war in 2006.
    — Tatiana Sataua, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of studying
Verb
  • Doctors examining the previously healthy teenager at a Los Angeles hospital discovered a subdural hematoma, a life-threatening injury which occurs when blood collects on the surface of the brain.
    — Blake Ellis, CNN Money, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The group had been examining the middle finger on Sasaki’s right hand.
    — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of examining
Verb
  • In this case, the reward was solving the ExploitGym questions and the hacking was literally hacking—cheating on the test and then hacking into Hugging Face in an effort to cover up the cheating (more on that below).
    — Emily Forlini, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The Model 3 and Model Y adopted less elaborate press-and-pivot handles, helping give the cars their clean, wind-cheating profiles.
    — Peter Lyon, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of cheating
Verb
  • In many cases, the robot tail wags the living dog by tricking it—tricking us—into caring about obscure metrics, then gamifying the process of improving them.
    — Hillary Busis, Vanity Fair, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Children were taken by tricking mothers, who were told their baby had died during childbirth.
    — Ashoka, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of tricking
Verb
  • Even last season, Moyes headed into the campaign with the immediate aim of quickly steering the side away from another scrap at the wrong end of the table.
    — Patrick Boyland, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • With Evil Dead Rise steering the franchise in a new darker direction, the horror continued this summer with Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn.
    — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of steering
Verb
  • The list of 500 schools was compiled by the magazine and data research firm Statista, Schools were given a score based on their student outcomes, learning environment and their attractiveness to students.
    — Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 27 Aug. 2026
  • How marketing teams are evaluating a provider Teams choosing a partner for this work are learning to ask pointed questions instead of accepting a buzzword.
    — Jason Phillips, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of learning
Verb
  • Anne Dressen, a curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, has been researching these questions by surveying hundreds of museum labels and wall texts across Europe and the US.
    — Devorah Lauter, ARTnews.com, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Another goal of the telescope is to spend a month surveying all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
    — Joe Palca, NPR, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of surveying
Verb
  • Besides Instagram hustling and scouring job boards, entrepreneurial editors find gigs when creators call out for help.
    — Andrew Zucker, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Devers, who finished with three hits, eschewed his power for small ball in the fifth, laying down a surprise bunt for a single, then hustling home on Susac’s sacrifice fly.
    — Justice delos Santos, Mercury News, 31 July 2026
Definition of hustling

Browse Nearby Words

conned
conning
connivance
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Cite this Entry

“Conning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/conning. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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