INDEX:
1. to get money or possessions from someone dishonestly
2. to make someone pay too much money for something
3. to cheat in an examination or game
4. to dishonestly arrange the result of a game, election etc
5. when people are dishonest in order to get money
6. someone who cheats
RELATED WORDS
to make someone believe something that is not true : ↑ TRICK/DECEIVE
to tell a lie : ↑ LIE
see also
↑ DISHONEST
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1. to get money or possessions from someone dishonestly
▷ cheat /tʃiːt/ [transitive verb]
▪ He doesn’t trust car mechanics -- he thinks they’re all trying to cheat him.
cheat somebody out of something
▪ She says she was cheated out of $10,000 she paid to a modeling agency.
▪ Cohen claimed that criminals posing as salesmen cheat Americans out of billions of dollars each year.
▷ swindle /ˈswɪndl/ [transitive verb]
to get money from a person or organization by cheating them, especially using clever and complicated methods :
▪ He was jailed in 1992 for attempting to swindle the insurance company he worked for.
swindle somebody out of something
▪ Investors have been swindled out of millions of pounds.
▷ con /kɒnǁkɑːn/ [transitive verb] especially spoken
to persuade someone to buy something or to give you money by telling them lies :
▪ By the time she realized she had been conned, she had lost more than $3000.
con somebody out of something
▪ The old lady was conned out of her life savings by a crooked insurance dealer.
con something out of somebody
▪ A man pretending to be a faith healer has conned around £20,000 out of desperate sick people.
con somebody into doing something
▪ She was too embarrassed to admit that they had conned her into buying 100 acres of worthless land.
▷ fiddle /ˈfɪdl/ [transitive verb] British informal
to give false information or make dishonest changes to financial records, in order to get money or avoid paying money :
▪ My boss thinks I’ve been fiddling my travel expenses.
fiddle the books/fiddle the accounts
change a company’s financial records
▪ The company secretary has been fiddling the books for years.
▷ defraud /dɪˈfrɔːd/ [transitive verb]
to get money from a company or organization, especially a very large one, by deceiving it :
▪ Trachtenberg is charged with attempting to defraud his business partner.
defraud somebody (out) of something
▪ Between them they defrauded the company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
▷ fleece /fliːs/ [transitive verb] informal
to get a lot of money from someone by tricking them :
▪ She fleeced him for everything he had.
▪ Authorities estimate at least 300 elderly couples were fleeced in the scheme.
fleece somebody of something
▪ She estimates he fleeced her of about £50,000 by tricking her into buying fake antiques.
▷ trick somebody out of /ˌtrɪk somebody ˈaʊt ɒv/ [verb phrase]
to get money or possessions from someone, by tricking or deceiving them :
▪ Police are warning residents to be on their guard after two men tricked a pensioner out of several hundred pounds.
▪ Megan was tricked out of her life savings by a smooth-talking handsome man who had promised to marry her.
▷ do somebody out of /ˌduː somebody ˈaʊt ɒv/ [verb phrase] especially British, informal
to cheat someone by not giving them money that they deserve or that they are owed :
▪ The way I see it, they’ve done me out of three weeks’ wages.
▪ She’s convinced the sales assistant did her out of £15.
▷ you’ve been had /juːv bɪn ˈhæd/ spoken
use this to say that someone has been cheated but they do not realize it :
▪ I hate to tell you this but you’ve been had. The antique clock you bought is a phoney.
2. to make someone pay too much money for something
▷ overcharge /ˌəʊvəʳˈtʃɑːʳdʒ/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to make someone pay too much for something in a shop, restaurant, taxi etc :
▪ Garage mechanics are twice as likely to overcharge women car owners as men.
overcharge somebody for something
▪ The cab driver tried to overcharge us for the ride from the airport.
▪ The university was accused of overcharging the government millions of dollars for research-related costs.
▷ rip off /ˌrɪp ˈɒf/ [transitive phrasal verb] spoken informal
to make someone pay much more for something than it is worth :
rip somebody off
▪ Don’t buy a watch from those guys, they’ll just rip you off.
rip off somebody
▪ The bars by the sea make huge profits by ripping off tourists.
▷ a rip-off /ə ˈrɪp ɒf/ [singular noun] spoken informal
if something is a rip-off, it costs much more than it is worth -- use this when you think that someone is trying to cheat you :
▪ ‘It cost £200 to get it fixed.’ ‘What a rip-off!’
a complete/total rip-off
▪ The meal cost me $80 - it was a total rip-off.
▷ fleece /fliːs/ [transitive verb] informal
to get a lot of money from someone by charging far too much for goods or services :
▪ Some airport shops are accused of fleecing their customers, who don’t have any choice but to use them.
3. to cheat in an examination or game
▷ cheat /tʃiːt/ [intransitive verb]
to use dishonest methods in order to pass an examination or win a game :
▪ Studies indicate about 20 to 30 percent of college students cheat.
cheat at
▪ Jenny always cheats at cards.
cheating [uncountable noun]
when someone cheats in an examination or game: :
▪ Their teacher suspected them of cheating when they both missed the same question on the test.
▷ copy /ˈkɒpiǁˈkɑː-/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to cheat in an examination, schoolwork etc by copying someone’s work :
▪ If I see anyone copying I’ll send you straight to the principal’s office.
copy off
▪ The only way I made it through high school was by copying off my best friend.
copy something from something
▪ She was expelled for handing in an essay that she had copied directly from a newspaper article.
4. to dishonestly arrange the result of a game, election etc
▷ fix /fɪks/ [transitive verb]
to dishonestly arrange the result of something, especially of a sports game, so that it is to your advantage :
▪ He was convicted of fixing college basketball games in the 1950s.
▪ Many people believe that the outcome of wrestling matches are fixed.
fix [countable noun]
▪ Supporters of the losing team protested that the whole thing was a fix.
▷ rig /ˈrɪg/ [transitive verb usually in passive]
if something is rigged, especially a vote or an election, it is dishonestly arranged so that a person or group gets the result they want :
▪ The senator resigned after accusations that the vote had been rigged.
▪ They would never have got into power if the whole thing hadn’t been rigged.
▪ Many Labour Party members believed that the ballot to elect a mayoral candidate was rigged.
▷ ballot-rigging /ˈbælət ˌrɪgɪŋ/ [uncountable noun]
when someone dishonestly arranges an election or other vote so that they get the result they want :
▪ The MP resigned after charges of fraud and ballot-rigging.
▷ throw /θrəʊ/ [transitive verb]
if a player or team throw a game, they deliberately lose it, especially in order to get money :
▪ Joe Jackson was one of eight Chicago White Sox accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
5. when people are dishonest in order to get money
▷ fraud /frɔːd/ [countable/uncountable noun]
the crime of getting money dishonestly from a big organization, for example by giving false information or changing documents, especially over a long time :
▪ Big losses due to theft and fraud forced the company to close.
▪ Landale is calling for more laws to protect consumers against fraud.
▷ scam /skæm/ [countable noun] informal
a method, usually used by several people working together, who cheat someone by making them believe something that is not true :
▪ I spent more than $4000 before I realized the whole thing was a scam.
scam to do something
▪ She and her boyfriend were involved in a scam to get $5 million from the company.
tax scam
a way of dishonestly avoiding paying tax
▷ swindle /ˈswɪndl/ [countable noun]
a well-planned and often complicated arrangement to cheat people :
▪ Young was convicted for his participation in a $2 million stock swindle.
▪ The whole property development proposal was a swindle. They never intended to build anything.
▷ fiddle /ˈfɪdl/ [countable noun] British
a situation in which people are cheated, especially in small ways over a long period of time :
▪ The firm realised some sort of fiddle was going on, but they had no idea how much they were losing.
work a fiddle
do a fiddle
▪ Managers don’t really get paid much here, but most of them are working a few fiddles.
▷ con /kɒnǁkɑːn/ [countable noun]
a method or process of persuading someone to buy something or to give you money by telling them lies :
▪ A lot of people gave money to the charity collectors, not realising it was a con.
con trick
British
▪ She wanted me to visit a fortune-teller but I thought it was all a big con trick.
▷ racket /ˈrækɪt, ˈrækət/ [countable noun]
an illegal business that is used by criminals to make a large profit for themselves :
▪ The FBI believe they have found the real criminals behind a big gambling racket.
▪ The Mafia runs a highly sophisticated drugs racket.
6. someone who cheats
▷ cheat also cheater American /tʃiːt, ˈtʃiːtəʳ/ [countable noun]
▪ Don’t pretend you can’t afford to pay me that money back -- you’re nothing but a cheat and a liar!
▪ My grandmother thinks all car salesmen are cheats.
▪ I’ll never play cards with you again, you cheater!
▷ con-man/con artist /ˈkɒn mænǁˈkɒn ˌɑːʳtə̇st ˈkɑːn-/ [countable noun] spoken informal
someone who gets money by cheating people or lying to them :
▪ a handsome con-man who charms women into giving him money, then simply disappears from their lives
▪ She gave $11,000 to two con artists who pretended to be bank officials.
▷ swindler /ˈswɪndləʳ/ [countable noun]
someone who regularly cheats people or organizations to get money :
▪ That firm is a bunch of swindlers. Don’t pay them anything until the goods have been delivered and checked.
▪ I wasn’t going to let any kid of mine work among those swindlers on Wall Street.