Meaning of spivvery | Babel Free

Definitions

Behaviour characteristic of a spiv; crookery, petty crime.

countable, uncountable

Examples

“The Government decided the issues in accordance with the best principles, he said: "The weak first; and the strong next." Mr. Churchill preferred a free-for-all, but what was Toryism except organised Spivvery?”

“Rome is also a city of spivvery, a city which had a black market before black markets were invented.”

“With fascism defeated and Great Britain back on form⟳, it is an optimistic start⟳, but in spite of Mr Attlee’s government promising all the best things for Britain, the country has descended into spivvery, which forces the good men of 1087 [a motor gun boat; see⟳ The Ship That Died of Shame] into trafficking drugs and becoming criminals.”

“Slater Walker became synonymous, after the 1973 crash⟳, with City spivvery and the kind of risk-taking excess from which the next generation failed to learn⟳.”

“This is spivvery for which you and I pay⟳ billions extra just to get⟳ minimal services—it can also lead⟳ to a financial fragility at the heart of the firms on which Britain now relies.”

CEFR level