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deceit
6 dictionary results for: Deceit
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
de·ceit       [di-seet] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.the act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating: Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again.
2.an act or device intended to deceive; trick; stratagem.
3.the quality of being deceitful; duplicity; falseness: a man full of deceit.
[Origin: 1225–75; ME deceite < AF, OF, n. use of fem. of deceit, ptp. of deceivre to deceive]

—Synonyms 1. deception, dissimulation. 1, 3. Deceit, guile, hypocrisy, duplicity, fraud, trickery refer either to practices designed to mislead or to the qualities that produce those practices. Deceit is the quality that prompts intentional concealment or perversion of truth for the purpose of misleading: honest and without deceit. The quality of guile leads to craftiness in the use of deceit: using guile and trickery to attain one's ends. Hypocrisy is the pretense of possessing qualities of sincerity, goodness, devotion, etc.: It was sheer hypocrisy for him to go to church. Duplicity is the form of deceitfulness that leads one to give two impressions, either or both of which may be false: the duplicity of a spy working for two governments. Fraud refers usually to the practice of subtle deceit or duplicity by which one may derive benefit at another's expense: an advertiser convicted of fraud. Trickery is the quality that leads to the use of tricks and habitual deception: notorious for his trickery in business deals.
—Antonyms 3. honesty, sincerity.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
de·ceit       (dĭ-sēt')  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. The act or practice of deceiving; deception.
  2. A stratagem; a trick.
  3. The quality of being deceitful; falseness.


[Middle English deceite, from Old French, from past participle of deceveir, to deceive; see deceive.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
deceit 
c.1300, from O.Fr. deceite, fem. pp. of deceveir (see deceive).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
deceit

noun
1. the quality of being fraudulent [syn: fraudulence] 
2. a misleading falsehood [syn: misrepresentation] 
3. the act of deceiving [syn: deception] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: de·ceit
Function: noun
: deliberate and misleading concealment, false declaration, or artifice : DECEPTION deceit>; also : the tort of committing or carrying out deceit deceit> —see also FRAUD, MISREPRESENTATION

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Deceit

De*ceit"\, n. [OF. deceit, des[,c]ait, decept (cf. deceite, de[,c]oite), fr. L. deceptus deception, fr. decipere. See Deceive.]

1. An attempt or disposition to deceive or lead into error; any declaration, artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false; a contrivance to entrap; deception; a wily device; fraud.

Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. --Amos viii. 5.

Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. --Milton.

Yet still we hug the dear deceit. --N. Cotton.

2. (Law) Any trick, collusion, contrivance, false representation, or underhand practice, used to defraud another. When injury is thereby effected, an action of deceit, as it called, lies for compensation.

Syn: Deception; fraud; imposition; duplicity; trickery; guile; falsifying; double-dealing; stratagem. See Deception.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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