Fast and Loose

an English exhibition trick. At country fairs and the like an expert loops a string to and fro on a table, and invites rustics to bet that they can drive a skewer or a pen knife into the table through loops in such a way as to entangle the string. In case of a wager, the player seizes the string by the two ends and solemnly pulls it out straight. The rustic sees the loops run out one by one and realizes finally that he has been done out of his money. The rustic is playing at a game in which there is no chance to win. To "play fast and loose" with a person, then, is to lead him on in fancied security and worst him in the end.