Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Cheat

Cheat (chēt), n. [rob. an abbrevation of escheat, lands or tenements that fall to a lord or to the state by forfeiture, or by the death of the tenant without heirs; the meaning being explained by the frauds, real or supposed, that were resorted to in procuring escheats. See Escheat.] 1. An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception; a fraud; a trick; imposition; imposture.

When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat. Dryden.

2. One who cheats or deceives; an impostor; a deceiver; a cheater.

Airy wonders, which cheats interpret. Johnson

3. (Bot.) A troublesome grass, growing as a weed in grain fields; — called also chess. See Chess.

4. (Law) The obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth.

☞ When cheats are effected by deceitful or illegal symbols or tokens which may affect the public at large and against which common prudence could not have guarded, they are indictable at common law. Wharton.

Syn. — Deception; imposture; fraud; delusion; artifice; trick; swindle; deceit; guile; finesse; stratagem.

Cheat, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cheated; p. pr. & vb. n. Cheating.] [See Cheat, n., Escheat.] 1. To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to swindle.

I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island. Shak.

2. To beguile. Sir W. Scott.

To cheat winter of its dreariness. W. Irving.

Syn. — To trick; cozen; gull; chouse; fool; outwit; circumvent; beguile; mislead; dupe; swindle; defraud; overreach; delude; hoodwink; deceive; bamboozle.

Cheat, v. i. To practice fraud or trickery; as, to cheat at cards.

Cheat, n. [Perh. from OF. cheté goods, chattels.] Wheat, or bread made from wheat. [Obs.] Drayton.

Their purest cheat, Thrice bolted, kneaded, and subdued in paste. Chapman.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.