Swindle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swindled; p. pr. & vb. n. Swindling.]
Etymology: [See Swindler.]
To cheat defraud grossly, or with deliberate artifice; as, to swindle a man out of his property. Lammote . . . has swindled one of them out of three hundred livres. Carlyle.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Swindle, n.
The act or process of swindling; a cheat.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for swindle; he lists it under fraud.
Where he writes about it:
Fraud includes deceit, but deceit may not reach the gravity of fraud; a cheat is of the nature of fraud, but of a petty sort; a swindle is more serious than a cheat, involving larger values and more flagrant dishonesty. — from fraud