Adjacent Words

Cheat definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHEAT, v.t.
1. To deceive and defraud in a bargain; to deceive for the purpose of gain in selling. Its proper application is to commerce, in which a person uses some arts, or misrepresentations, or withholds some facts, by which he deceives the purchaser.
2. To deceive by any artifice, trick or device, with a view to gain an advantage contrary to common honesty; as, to cheat a person at cards.
3. To impose on; to trick. It is followed by of or out of, and colloquially by into, as to cheat a child into a belief that a medicine is palatable.
CHEAT, n.
1. A fraud committed by deception; a trick; imposition; imposture.
2. A person who cheats; one guilty of fraud by deceitful practices.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous [syn: darnel, tare, bearded darnel, cheat, Lolium temulentum]
2: weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat [syn: chess, cheat, Bromus secalinus]
3: someone who leads you to believe something that is not true [syn: deceiver, cheat, cheater, trickster, beguiler, slicker]
4: the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme; "that book is a fraud" [syn: swindle, cheat, rig]
5: a deception for profit to yourself [syn: cheat, cheating] v
1: deprive somebody of something by deceit; "The con-man beat me out of $50"; "This salesman ripped us off!"; "we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme"; "They chiseled me out of my money" [syn: cheat, rip off, chisel]
2: defeat someone through trickery or deceit [syn: cheat, chouse, shaft, screw, chicane, jockey]
3: engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud; "Who's chiseling on the side?" [syn: cheat, chisel]
4: be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage; "She cheats on her husband"; "Might her husband be wandering?" [syn: cheat on, cheat, cuckold, betray, wander]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: ²cheat Date: 1590 transitive verb 1. to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud 2. to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice 3. to elude or thwart by or as if by outwitting <cheat death> intransitive verb 1. a. to practice fraud or trickery b. to violate rules dishonestly <cheat at cards> <cheating on a test> 2. to be sexually unfaithful — usually used with on <was cheating on his wife> 3. to position oneself defensively near a particular area in anticipation of a play in that area <the shortstop was cheating toward second base> • cheater noun Synonyms: cheat, cozen, defraud, swindle mean to get something by dishonesty or deception. cheat suggests using trickery that escapes observation <cheated me out of a dollar>. cozen implies artful persuading or flattering to attain a thing or a purpose <always able to cozen her grandfather out of a few dollars>. defraud stresses depriving one of his or her rights and usually connotes deliberate perversion of the truth <defrauded of her inheritance by an unscrupulous lawyer>. swindle implies large-scale cheating by misrepresentation or abuse of confidence <swindled of their savings by con artists>. II. noun Etymology: earlier cheat forfeited property, from Middle English chet escheat, short for eschete — more at escheat Date: 1615 1. the act or an instance of fraudulently deceiving ; deception, fraud 2. one that cheats ; pretender, deceiver 3. [probably from a deceptive resemblance to grain] a. chess 1 b. cheatgrass 4. the obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. a (often foll. by into, out of) deceive or trick (cheated into parting with his savings). b (foll. by of) deprive of (cheated of a chance to reply). 2 intr. gain unfair advantage by deception or breaking rules, esp. in a game or examination. 3 tr. avoid (something undesirable) by luck or skill (cheated the bad weather). 4 tr. archaic divert attention from, beguile (time, tedium, etc.). --n. 1 a person who cheats. 2 a trick, fraud, or deception. 3 an act of cheating. Phrases and idioms: cheat on colloq. be sexually unfaithful to. Derivatives: cheatingly adv. Etymology: ME chete f. achete, var. of ESCHEAT

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cheat Cheat, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cheated; p. pr. & vb. n. Cheating.] [See Cheat, n., Escheat.] 1. To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to swindle. I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island. --Shak. 2. To beguile. --Sir W. Scott. To cheat winter of its dreariness. --W. Irving. Syn: To trick; cozen; gull; chouse; fool; outwit; circumvent; beguile; mislead; dupe; swindle; defraud; overreach; delude; hoodwink; deceive; bamboozle.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cheat Cheat, n. [rob. an abbrevation of escheat, lands or tenements that fall to a lord or to the state by forfeiture, or by the death of the tenant without heirs; the meaning being explained by the frauds, real or supposed, that were resorted to in procuring escheats. See Escheat.] 1. An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception; a fraud; a trick; imposition; imposture. When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat. --Dryden. 2. One who cheats or deceives; an impostor; a deceiver; a cheater. Airy wonders, which cheats interpret. --Johnson 3. (Bot.) A troublesome grass, growing as a weed in grain fields; -- called also chess. See Chess. 4. (Law) The obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth. Note: When cheats are effected by deceitful or illegal symbols or tokens which may affect the public at large and against which common prudence could not have guarded, they are indictable at common law. --Wharton. Syn: Deception; imposture; fraud; delusion; artifice; trick; swindle; deceit; guile; finesse; stratagem.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cheat Cheat, v. i. To practice fraud or trickery; as, to cheat at cards.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cheat Cheat, n. [Perh. from OF. chet['e] goods, chattels.] Wheat, or bread made from wheat. [Obs.] --Drayton. Their purest cheat, Thrice bolted, kneaded, and subdued in paste. --Chapman.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Chess Chess, n. (Bot.) A species of brome grass (Bromus secalinus) which is a troublesome weed in wheat fields, and is often erroneously regarded as degenerate or changed wheat; it bears a very slight resemblance to oats, and if reaped and ground up with wheat, so as to be used for food, is said to produce narcotic effects; -- called also cheat and Willard's bromus. [U. S.] Note: Other species of brome grass are called upright chess, soft chess, etc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cheats, cheating, cheated) 1. When someone cheats, they do not obey a set of rules which they should be obeying, for example in a game or exam. Students may be tempted to cheat in order to get into top schools. VERB: V • cheating In an election in 1988, he was accused of cheating by his opponent. 2. Someone who is a cheat does not obey a set of rules which they should be obeying. Cheats will be disqualified. N-COUNT 3. If someone cheats you out of something, they get it from you by behaving dishonestly. The company engaged in a deliberate effort to cheat them out of their pensions... Many brokers were charged with cheating customers in commodity trades. VERB: V n out of/of n, V n 4. If you say that someone cheats death, you mean they only just avoid being killed. (JOURNALISM) He cheated death when he was rescued from the roof of his blazing cottage. PHRASE: V inflects

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Defraud, trick, deceive, dupe, gull, overreach, jockey, cozen, chouse, outwit, bamboozle, circumvent, delude, hoodwink, beguile, mislead, cajole, inveigle, gammon, impose upon, take in, swindle, victimize, practise on, entrap, ensnare, hoax, fool, befool, play false. II. v. n. Deceive, practise fraud, act dishonestly, shuffle, dissemble, cozen, juggle. III. n. 1. Trick, deception, imposture, imposition, juggle, stratagem, fraud, wile, blind, catch, swindle, snare, trap, pitfall, artifice, deceit, chouse, piece of finesse, bit of knavery, piece of chicanery. 2. False show, delusion, illusion, deception, mockery, sham, counterfeit, make believe, tinsel, paste. 3. Trickster, impostor, rogue, knave, swindler, sharper, cheater, artful fellow, dodger, artful dodger, shuffler, charlatan, mountebank, chevalier d'industrie.

Moby Thesaurus

ballot-box stuffing, bamboozle, bamboozlement, beat, befool, beguile, beguile of, bilk, blackleg, boodle, bunco, burn, cardsharping, charlatan, cheater, cheating, chicane, chicanery, chisel, chiseler, chouse, chouse out of, clinquant, cog, cog the dice, con, con man, confidence man, counterfeit, cozen, cozenage, cozener, crib, crook, deceit, deceive, deceiver, deception, defraud, defrauder, delude, diddle, diddler, diddling, dishonesty, do, do in, do out of, dodge, doodle, double-cross, double-dealer, double-dealing, duff, dummy, dupe, euchre, evade, fake, fakement, faker, falsify, fiddle, finagle, fishy transaction, flam, fleece, flimflam, flimflam man, flimflammer, fob, fool, forgery, frame-up, fraud, fraudulence, fraudulency, fudge, gerrymandering, gouge, graft, grift, gull, gyp, gyp artist, gyp joint, gypper, hanky-panky, have, hoax, hocus, hocus-pocus, hoodwink, humbug, illicit business, imitation, imposition, impostor, imposture, juggler, junk, lie, mace, mislead, mock, mountebank, mulct, operator, overreach, pack the deal, paste, phony, pigeon, pinchbeck, practice fraud upon, put-on, put-up job, racket, ream, rip off, rip-off, rogue, rook, scam, screw, sell, sell gold bricks, sham, shark, sharp practice, sharper, sharpie, shave, shift, shift about, shoddy, short, shortchange, simulacrum, skin, slick, stack the cards, stick, sting, sucker, swindle, swindler, take, take a dive, take in, thimblerig, throw a fight, tinsel, trick, trickery, trickster, two-timer, victimize, whited sepulcher