shyster

plural shysters · alternative schister · alternative scheister · alternative sheister · alternative schyster · alternative shister · alternative shaista · alternative shiester · alternative schiester

1. Someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.

   I could sue you, Polly. A shyster is a disreputable lawyer. I'm a quack.

   1981, Blake Edwards, S.O.B. (motion picture), spoken by Dr. Irving Finegarten (Robert Preston)

   2 more examples

   True, it was a good advertisement at Boosters' Club lunches, and all the varieties of Annual Banquets to which Good Fellows were invited, to speak sonorously of […] a thing called Ethics, whose nature was confusing but if you had it you were a High-class Realtor and if you hadn't you were a shyster, a piker, and a fly-by-night.

   1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter IV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC

   The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies. Internal Revenue-Uncle Whiskers says I owe them a mint.

   1973, Lucas Webb, Stribling, page 188

   Synonyms: pettifogger

present singular third person shysters · participle present shystering · participle past shystered · past shystered · alternative schister · alternative scheister · alternative sheister · alternative schyster · alternative shister · alternative shaista · alternative shiester · alternative schiester

1. intransitiveTo act in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of law and politics.
2. transitiveTo exploit (someone or something) in this way.