cheat

American  

[cheet] / tʃit /

verb (used with object)

1. to defraud; swindle.

   He cheated her out of her inheritance.

   Synonyms:

   fool, hoax, con, gull, delude, dupe, mislead

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.

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verb (used without object)

1. to practice fraud or deceit.

   She cheats without regrets.

2. to violate rules or regulations.

   He cheats at cards.

3. to take an examination or test in a dishonest way, as by improper access to answers.

4. Informal. to be sexually unfaithful (often followed byon ).

   Her husband knew she had been cheating all along. He cheated on his wife.

noun

1. a person who acts dishonestly, deceives, or defrauds.

   He is a cheat and a liar.

   Synonyms:

   mountebank, phony, fake, fraud, charlatan, dodger, sharper, trickster, swindler

2. a fraud; swindle; deception.

   The game was a cheat.

   Synonyms:

   hoax, trick, artifice, imposture

3. Law. the fraudulent obtaining of another's property by a pretense or trick.

4. an impostor.

   The man who passed as an earl was a cheat.

cheat British  

/ tʃiːt /

verb

1. to deceive or practise deceit, esp for one's own gain; trick or swindle (someone)

2. (intr) to obtain unfair advantage by trickery, as in a game of cards

3. (tr) to escape or avoid (something unpleasant) by luck or cunning

   to cheat death

4. informal to be sexually unfaithful to (one's wife, husband, or lover)

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noun

1. a person who cheats

2. a deliberately dishonest transaction, esp for gain; fraud

3. informal sham

4. law the obtaining of another's property by fraudulent means

5. the usual US name for rye-brome

Related Words

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, especially 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.

Other Word Forms

• cheatable adjective
• cheater noun
• cheatingly adverb
• outcheat verb (used with object)
• uncheated adjective
• uncheating adjective

Etymology

Origin of cheat

1325–75; Middle English chet (noun) (aphetic for achet, variant of eschet escheat ); cheten to escheat, derivative of chet (noun)

Example Sentences

You don’t want to give the impression that you have a script or are cheating in some way.

From The Wall Street Journal

Swearing, illicit filming & rule changes - what next in curling cheating row?

From BBC

She felt angry and cheated, tricked and stupid, lost and lonely, sad and confused—and the feelings were stronger than the words could say.

From Literature

“You cheat yourself out of too much life.”

From Salon

Once the Games began, they were humiliated again by another kind of cheating scandal involving an unfaithful biathlete.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bilk
• con
• deceive
• defraud
• delude
• dupe
• fleece
• hoodwink
• mislead
• swindle
• trick
• victimize