cheat

[ cheet ]
See synonyms for cheat on Thesaurus.com
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.

  1. 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.

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

  2. Informal. to be sexually unfaithful (often followed by on): 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.

  2. a fraud; swindle; deception: The game was a cheat.

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

  2. an impostor: The man who passed as an earl was a cheat.

Origin of cheat

1
1325–75; Middle English chet (noun) (aphetic for achet, variant of eschetescheat); cheten to escheat, derivative of chet (noun)

synonym study For cheat

1. 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 words for cheat

Other words from cheat

  • cheat·a·ble, adjective
  • cheat·ing·ly, adverb
  • outcheat, verb (used with object)
  • un·cheat·ed, adjective
  • un·cheat·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cheat in a sentence

  • Certainly The Cheats establishes her in my mind as our first writer of historical fiction.

  • All those who deceive mankind are not always cheats; they are frequently deceived by those who are knaves in reality.

    Letters To Eugenia | Paul Henri Thiry Holbach
  • The first-named in particular was very much excited, and declared he wanted nothing more to do with cheats.

    The Story of the Big Front Door | Mary Finley Leonard
  • Cards and Dice are only fit for cowardly Cheats, who prey upon their Friends.

  • Sometimes it makes such a fizzing and foaming, I wonder some of our London cheats do not bottle it up and sell it for ginger-pop.

    Library Notes | A. P. Russell

British Dictionary definitions for cheat

cheat

/ (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

  1. (tr) to escape or avoid (something unpleasant) by luck or cunning: to cheat death

  2. (when intr, usually foll by on) 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

  1. informal sham

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

  3. the usual US name for rye-brome

Origin of cheat

1
C14: short for escheat

Derived forms of cheat

  • cheatable, adjective
  • cheater, noun
  • cheatingly, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012