Adjacent Words

Defraud definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEFRAUD, v.t. [L. To cheat.]
1. To deprive of right, either by obtaining something by deception or artifice, or by taking something wrongfully without the knowledge or consent of the owner; to cheat; to cozen; followed by of before the thing taken; as, to defraud; a man of his right.
We have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. 2 Corinthians 7.
The agent who embezzles public property, defrauds the state.
The man who by deception obtains a price for a commodity above its value, defrauds the purchaser.
2. To withhold wrongfully from another what is due to him. Defraud not the hireling of his wages.
3. To prevent one wrongfully from obtaining what he may justly claim.
A man of fortune who permits his son to consume the season of education in hunting, shooting, or in frequenting horse-races, assemblies, etc., defrauds the community of a benefactor, and bequeaths them a nuissance.
4. To defeat or frustrate wrongfully.
By the duties deserted-by the claims defrauded.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: deprive of by deceit; "He swindled me out of my inheritance"; "She defrauded the customers who trusted her"; "the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change" [syn: victimize, swindle, rook, goldbrick, nobble, diddle, bunco, defraud, scam, mulct, gyp, gip, hornswoggle, short-change, con]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French defrauder, from Latin defraudare, from de- + fraudare to cheat, from fraud-, fraus fraud Date: 14th century to deprive of something by deception or fraud Synonyms: see cheat • defrauder noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. (often foll. by of) cheat by fraud. Derivatives: defrauder n. Etymology: ME f. OF defrauder or L defraudare (as DE-, FRAUD)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Defraud De*fraud", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Defrauded; p. pr. & vb. n. Defrauding.] [L. defraudare; de- + fraudare to cheat, fr. fraus, fraudis, fraud: cf. OF. defrauder. See Fraud.] To deprive of some right, interest, or property, by a deceitful device; to withhold from wrongfully; to injure by embezzlement; to cheat; to overreach; as, to defraud a servant, or a creditor, or the state; -- with of before the thing taken or withheld. We have defrauded no man. --2 Cor. vii. 2. Churches seem injured and defrauded of their rights. --Hooker.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(defrauds, defrauding, defrauded) If someone defrauds you, they take something away from you or stop you from getting what belongs to you by means of tricks and lies. He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the government... ...allegations that he defrauded taxpayers of thousands of dollars. VERB: V n, V n of/out of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Cheat, cozen, trick, dupe, gull, deceive, overreach, circumvent, delude, hoodwink, chouse, beguile, impose upon.

Moby Thesaurus

abstract, and, annex, appropriate, bag, bamboozle, beat, beguile, beguile of, bilk, boost, borrow, bunco, burn, cheat, chisel, chouse, chouse out of, circumvent, cog, cog the dice, con, cop, cozen, crib, deceive, delude, diddle, do, do in, do out of, dupe, embezzle, euchre, extort, filch, finagle, flam, fleece, flimflam, fob, foil, fool, fudge, gouge, gull, gyp, have, hoax, hocus, hocus-pocus, hoodwink, hook, humbug, lift, make off with, milk, mulct, nip, outwit, pack the deal, palm, pigeon, pilfer, pinch, poach, practice fraud upon, purloin, rip off, rob, rook, rope in, run away with, rustle, scam, screw, scrounge, sell gold bricks, shave, shoplift, shortchange, snare, snatch, snitch, stack the cards, steal, stick, sting, swindle, swipe, take, take a dive, take in, thieve, thimblerig, throw a fight, trick, victimize, walk off with