— cheatable , adj. — cheatingly , adv.
/cheet/ , v.t.
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.
v.i.
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 fol. by on ): Her husband knew she had been cheating all along. He cheated on his wife.
n.
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.
[ 1325-75; ME chet (n.) (aph. for achet, var. of eschet ESCHEAT); cheten to escheat, deriv. of chet (n.) ]
Syn. 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, esp. 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.