cheat

[cheet] /tʃit/
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 followed 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; Middle English chet (noun) (aphetic for achet, variant of eschet escheat); cheten to escheat, derivative of chet (noun)
Related forms
cheatable, adjective
cheatingly, adverb
outcheat, verb (used with object)
uncheated, adjective
uncheating, adjective
Synonyms
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, 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. 8. swindler, trickster, sharper, dodger, charlatan, fraud, fake, phony, mountebank. 9. imposture, artifice, trick, hoax.
Examples from the web for cheat
  • My suggestion would be to go beyond walking around so that they feel that they cannot cheat.
  • It seems stunningly unfair now to cheat retirees and near-retirees out of benefits promised.
  • The participants were told that no one would know whether they pushed the space bar, but they were asked not to cheat.
  • The proliferation of mobile devices gives students more ways to cheat on tests.
  • It found that stressed students didn't generally cheat on tests, but sometimes took shortcuts in patient care.
  • The labels were obscured by socks pulled up to the rim of each can, so to cheat a volunteer had only to lower the sock.
  • In a strange but mutually beneficial bargain, punishing other cheaters earns punishers the right to cheat.
  • We must never excuse people who cheat the welfare system.
  • Exposing students who cheat to public scrutiny would undermine the university's mission, she said.
  • The second, and more important lesson, is that you can't cheat nature.
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.
(intransitive) to obtain unfair advantage by trickery, as in a game of cards
3.
(transitive) to escape or avoid (something unpleasant) by luck or cunning: to cheat death
4.
(informal) when intr, usually foll by on. to be sexually unfaithful to (one's wife, husband, or lover)
noun
5.
a person who cheats
6.
a deliberately dishonest transaction, esp for gain; fraud
7.
(informal) sham
8.
(law) the obtaining of another's property by fraudulent means
9.
the usual US name for rye-brome
Derived Forms
cheatable, adjective
cheater, noun
cheatingly, adverb
Word Origin
C14: short for escheat
Word Origin and History for cheat
v.

mid-15c., "to escheat," a shortening of Old French escheat, legal term for revision of property to the state when the owner dies without heirs, literally "that which falls to one," past participle of escheoir "befall by chance, happen, devolve," from Vulgar Latin *excadere "to fall away," from Latin ex- "out" (see ex-) + cadere "to fall" (see case (n.1)). Also cf. escheat. The royal officers evidently had a low reputation. Meaning evolved through "confiscate" (mid-15c.) to "deprive unfairly" (1580s). To cheat on (someone) "be sexually unfaithful" first recorded 1934. Related: Cheated; cheating.

n.

late 14c., "forfeited property," from cheat (v.). Meaning "a deceptive act" is from 1640s; earlier, in thieves' jargon, it meant "a stolen thing" (late 16c.), and earlier still "dice" (1530s). Meaning "a swindler" is from 1660s.

Slang definitions & phrases for cheat

cheat

verb

To be sexually unfaithful; get a little on the side (1930s+)