American Dictionary of the English Language

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Cheat


CHEAT, verb transitive

1. To deceive and defraud in a bargain; to deceive for the purpose of gain in selling. Its proper application is to commerce, in which a person uses some arts, or misrepresentations, or withholds some facts, by which he deceives the purchaser.

2. To deceive by any artifice, trick or device, with a view to gain an advantage contrary to common honesty; as, to cheat a person at cards.

3. To impose on; to trick. It is followed by of or out of, and colloquially by into, as to cheat a child into a belief that a medicine is palatable.

CHEAT, noun

1. A fraud committed by deception; a trick; imposition; imposture.

2. A person who cheats; one guilty of fraud by deceitful practices.