sell someone a pup

• be sold a pup

From an old swindle, where one would be sold a bag purportedly containing a piglet, but which actually contained a puppy. Compare pig in a poke.

sell someone a pup (conjugates with sell)

1. (Britain) To sell something of little worth, pretending that it is something else of greater value.
   • 1931, R. Austin Freeman, Pontifax, Son and Thorndyke, 2003, page 31,

     “Yes,” I agreed, “you undoubtedly sold him a pup. Precious mug he must have been to let you. But I suppose, as it was Saturday night, he was pretty busy.”

   • 2004 [previously published in a pulp magazine], Henry De Vere Stacpoole, “Glued”, The Slayer and Other Tales from the Pulps, page 99,

     I don't know who sold him the gold prospectus, but whoever did, sold him a pup.

   • 2009 July 20, Arifa Akbar, Churchill felt he was ‘sold a pup’ of a bomb shelter, letter reveals, The Independent.
   • 2009 July 31, Online dog lovers sold a pup, Sydney Morning Herald.
   • 2011, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Dynasty 22: The Mirage, unnumbered page,

     It hurt Henrietta to think that there was any area in which her husband did not excel, but if he had been anyone else she would have concluded that the dealer had sold him a pup.

Often used in the passive voice, as in: I've been sold a pup.

• See also Thesaurus:deceive

• buy a pup
• be sold a pup
• sell a pup

• sell someone a bill of goods
• let the cat out of the bag
• pig in a poke

• Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed.