Beat
Beat verb - To rob by the use of trickery or threats.
Usage example: the screenwriter has filed a lawsuit, accusing the production company of beating him out of his share of the film's net profits
Con
Con verb - To rob by the use of trickery or threats.
Usage example: a fly-by-night operator who had conned hundreds of would-be homeowners out of their hard-earned money
Nearby Word: cony
How words are described
| fellow | fellow beat | fellow con |
| old | old beat | old con |
| good | good beat | good con |
| short | short beat | short con |
| Other adjectives: perfect, original, single, obvious, actual, huge, little, bad, major, next, last, different, giant. | ||
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
-
When Gillon thinks that he has Gabriel beat, he chastises him, "Never hustle and hustler," but Gabriel corrects him, "Never con a conman," just before pulling his final con.
Source: Film / Diggstown -
Leverage beat Burn Notice to the punch with Sophie Devereaux.◊ Sophie in British, but as a con woman has convincingly portrayed multiple characters from around the world.
Source: Ambiguously Brown -
So, the trope is actually applied doubly; even once they know it was a Kansas City Shuffle, they're still wrong about how the con works, and trying to beat it still only gets them out of the way.
Source: Kansas City Shuffle
Cite this Source
Con and Beat. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/beat/con
Beat & Con. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/beat/con>.
Con or Beat. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/beat/con.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "beat" and "con" have occurred on timeline