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

But the teens I spoke to say they have curtailed their use because of fears over cheating accusations, concerns about AI’s environmental impact and worries about negative psychological effects.

From The Wall Street Journal

She tolerated my father’s cheating and lying until I was five years old, when we left him for good.

From The Wall Street Journal

Would it be cheating to ask Ray for a photo of him?

From Literature

This "constitutes, pure and simple, a form of cheating", the football governing body said at the time.

From BBC

“The whole point is to get through whatever he throws at you without preparation. If I told you what happens, it wouldn’t be fair. You’d only be cheating yourself.”

From Literature

Related Words

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