Definition of "con"

For Caſſius is a-weary of the World: / Hated by one he loues, brau'd by his Brother, / Check'd like a bondman, all his faults obſeru'd, / Set in a Note-booke, learn'd, and con'd by roate / To caſt into my Teeth.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii], page 125, column 1

At length, himself unsettling, he the pond / Stirred with his staff, and fixedly did look / Upon the muddy water, which he conned, / As if he had been reading in a book

1815 , William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

I did not come into parliament to con my lesson. I had earned my pension before I set my foot in St. Stephen's chapel.

1795, Edmund Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks Made upon him and his Pension, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale, Early in the Present Session of Parliament

During these delectable entertainments, Miss Wirt and the chaperon sate by, and conned over the peerage, and talked about the nobility.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848

He read old almanacs at the book-stalls on the quays, and he began to frequent another café, where more newspapers were taken and his postprandial demitasse cost him a penny extra, and where he used to con the tattered sheets for curious anecdotes, freaks of nature, and strange coincidences.

1876–1877, Henry James, Jr., chapter IV, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877

The hawk rested on a crag of the gorge and conned the terrain with a fierce and frowning eye.

1963, D'Arcy Niland, Dadda jumped over two elephants: short stories

Of Muses Hobbinol, I conne no skill

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890,

Leavers will be attracted to that story because it spares them the discomfort of admitting that they voted for a con, and then made a prime minister of the con artist.

2021 February 23, Rafael Behr, “Brexit is a machine to generate perpetual grievance. It's doing its job perfectly”, in The Guardian‎

Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals [title]

2017 July 17, Martin Lukacs, “Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals”, in The Guardian‎

I can't speak for Faye as ed of FHAPA, but it would be really swell of someone could send us a set of Intersection daily newszines, plus any con flyers or other fannish papers that were there to had for the picking up: fannish things, you know, not including media, gaming, filking or costuming, fine fun but not my cup of blog, thank you.

1995 September 4, Lindsay Crawford, “Re: Intersection”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom‎ (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>