Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Deceit

De·ceit′ (dē·sēt′), n. [OF. deceit, desçait, decept (cf. deceite, deçoite), fr. L. deceptus deception, fr. decipere. See Deceive.] 1. An attempt or disposition to deceive or lead into error; any declaration, artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false; a contrivance to entrap; deception; a wily device; fraud.

Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. Amos viii. 5.

Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. Milton.

Yet still we hug the dear deceit. N. Cotton.

2. (Law) Any trick, collusion, contrivance, false representation, or underhand practice, used to defraud another. When injury is thereby effected, an action of deceit, as it called, lies for compensation.

Syn. — Deception; fraud; imposition; duplicity; trickery; guile; falsifying; double-dealing; stratagem. See Deception.

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.