cheat
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English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English cheten, an aphetic variant of acheten, escheten, from Old French escheoiter, from the noun (see below). Displaced native Old English beswican.
Verb[edit]
cheat (third-person singular simple present cheats, present participle cheating, simple past and past participle cheated)
- (intransitive) To violate rules in order to gain advantage from a situation.
- My brother flunked biology because he cheated on his mid-term.
- (intransitive) To be unfaithful to one's spouse or partner.
- My husband cheated on me with his secretary.
- After he found out his wife cheated, he left her.
- (transitive) To manage to avoid something even though it seemed unlikely.
- He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.
- I feel as if I've cheated fate.
- (transitive) To deceive; to fool; to trick.
- My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.
- He cheated his way into office.
- 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
- I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island.
- 1819, Washington Irving, Rural Life in England
- to cheat winter of its dreariness
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
violate rules to gain advantage
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being unfaithful
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manage to avoid something
to deceive
Etymology 2[edit]
From Middle English chete, an aphetic form of eschete, escheat (“the reversion of property to the state if there are no legal claimants”), from Anglo-Norman escheat, Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), from the past participle of eschoir (“to fall”), from Vulgar Latin *excadō, from Latin ex + cadō (“I fall”).
Noun[edit]
cheat (plural cheats)
- Someone who cheats (informal: cheater).
- An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception; a fraud; a trick; imposition; imposture.
- 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, OCLC 228724395, (please specify the page number):
- When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat.
- The weed cheatgrass.
- A card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies.
- (video games) A hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a computer game, often by entering a cheat code.
- 1992, Phil Howard, Cheat Mode (in Amstrad Action issue 76, January 1992, page 32)
- I've had a number of requests for a cheat for Turrican the first. Yes, there is a keypress built in […]
- 1992, Phil Howard, Cheat Mode (in Amstrad Action issue 76, January 1992, page 32)
Synonyms[edit]
- (card game): bullshit, BS, I doubt it
Translations[edit]
someone who is dishonest or cheats
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card game
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unfair advantage in a computer game
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
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