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cheat

 - 2 dictionary results

cheat

[cheet]
–verb (used with object)
1. to defraud; swindle: He cheated her out of her inheritance.
2. to deceive; influence by fraud: He cheated us into believing him a hero.
3. to elude; deprive of something expected: He cheated the law by suicide.
–verb (used without object)
4. to practice fraud or deceit: She cheats without regrets.
5. to violate rules or regulations: He cheats at cards.
6. to take an examination or test in a dishonest way, as by improper access to answers.
7. Informal. to be sexually unfaithful (often fol. by on): Her husband knew she had been cheating all along. He cheated on his wife.
–noun
8. a person who acts dishonestly, deceives, or defrauds: He is a cheat and a liar.
9. a fraud; swindle; deception: The game was a cheat.
10. Law. the fraudulent obtaining of another's property by a pretense or trick.
11. an impostor: The man who passed as an earl was a cheat.

Origin:
1325–75; ME chet (n.) (aph. for achet, var. of eschet escheat ); cheten to escheat, deriv. of chet (n.)


cheat⋅a⋅ble, adjective
cheat⋅ing⋅ly, adverb


1. mislead, dupe, delude; gull, con; hoax, fool. Cheat, deceive, trick, victimize refer to the use of fraud or artifice deliberately to hoodwink or obtain an unfair advantage over someone. Cheat implies conducting matters fraudulently, esp. for profit to oneself: to cheat at cards. Deceive suggests deliberately misleading or deluding, to produce misunderstanding or to prevent someone from knowing the truth: to deceive one's parents. To trick is to deceive by a stratagem, often of a petty, crafty, or dishonorable kind: to trick someone into signing a note. To victimize is to make a victim of; the emotional connotation makes the cheating, deception, or trickery seem particularly dastardly: to victimize a blind man. 8. swindler, trickster, sharper, dodger, charlatan, fraud, fake, phony, mountebank. 9. imposture, artifice, trick, hoax.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To cheat
cheat   (chēt)   
v.   cheat·ed, cheat·ing, cheats

v.   tr.
  1. To deceive by trickery; swindle: cheated customers by overcharging them for purchases.

  2. To deprive by trickery; defraud: cheated them of their land.

  3. To mislead; fool: illusions that cheat the eye.

  4. To elude; escape: cheat death.

v.   intr.
  1. To act dishonestly; practice fraud.

  2. To violate rules deliberately, as in a game: was accused of cheating at cards.

  3. Informal To be sexually unfaithful: cheat on a spouse.

  4. Baseball To position oneself closer to a certain area than is normal or expected: The shortstop cheated toward second base.

n.  
  1. An act of cheating; a fraud or swindle.

  2. One who cheats; a swindler.

  3. A computer application, password, or disallowed technique used to advance to a higher skill level in a computer video game.

  4. Law Fraudulent acquisition of another's property.

  5. Botany An annual European species of brome grass (Bromus secalinus) widely naturalized in temperate regions.


[Middle English cheten, to confiscate, short for acheten, variant of escheten, from eschete, escheat; see escheat.]
cheat'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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