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.

---

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)

---

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)

Explanation

To cheat is to use sneaky, unfair methods to get something you want. No one's going to want to play with you if you always cheat at mini golf. Some people cheat at cards, and others cheat during math tests by copying from the student beside them. In either case, they're trying to succeed using underhanded tricks. You can refer to someone who does this as a cheat as well. Cheat comes from the Old French escheat, a legal term for the state taking someone's property when he or she dies without heirs. This practice was resented, and it came to mean "confiscate unfairly."

Example Sentences

In his words, "there's someone who makes decisions to go and try to cheat".

From BBC • May 13, 2026

The German automaker admitted in 2015 it had sold 11 million vehicles equipped with devices designed to cheat environmental regulations by lowering cars' emissions during testing.

From Barron's • May 12, 2026

Scientists have uncovered evidence that evolution has relied on the same genetic "cheat sheet" for more than 120 million years, raising the possibility that life on Earth may be more predictable than once believed.

From Science Daily • May 4, 2026

Traditional patriarchy isn’t some cheat code to make marriage happy.

From Salon • Apr. 8, 2026

Or perhaps they’d discovered some new and innovative way to cheat.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Related Words

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