a person who was accused of some crime in the court of law and has been proven guilty of that crime and has been sentenced to some period of time in prison;
Brendon is an ex-con, served two years for robbery, who is now working as a garbage van driver.
The police have tough time handling drug-trafficking cons because these cons are usually backed by politicians in high positions.
Most cons spend less time outside the prison and more time inside for one reason or the other, most often for breaking their parole conditions.
young cons
Note: ‘Con’ is also used as an adjective to refer to people or things that are related to ‘prisoners and convicts’, e.g. ‘con job’, ‘a talented con artist’, etc. “Last week Penelope fell victim to a con artist at the pub who told her that he would get her a good position in a reputed show business firm and Penelope, believing him, ‘lent’ him $ 500 that night, and later realised that it was a con job and she was conned for $ 500 plus a $ 100 for his drinks!”; and in addition, ‘con’ is also used in its verb form to mean ‘to cheat’, ‘to trick’, etc., e.g. “Greedy old people are commonly conned by street vendors who sell local goods with foreign brand labels on them.”
For an article/news item that has ‘con’ in the adjective form (or used as a compound noun), please click here, and for an article/news item that tells us about an ex-con acting in a film, please click here. For an article with the title “Cons Helping Cons” that has some useful tips for the cons service sentence on how to keep away from prison, please click here.
‘Con’ is also used to mean a ‘confidence trick’ which means a trick or some kind of cheating in which an innocent person is cheated by making him/her believe what is being told is true and then cheat them; and the person who does a ‘confidence trick’ is called a “conman” (the next entry). And ‘con’ is found in the phrase/expression “pros and cons” which means the good (pros) and bad (cons) or the advantages (pros) and disadvantages (cons) of an activity, and the points in favour of or against a motion or cause, etc.
BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language.
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