CHEAT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cheat mean? 

• CHEAT (noun)
  The noun CHEAT has 5 senses:

1. weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous

2. weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat

3. someone who leads you to believe something that is not true

4. the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme

5. a deception for profit to yourself

  Familiarity information: CHEAT used as a noun is common.

• CHEAT (verb)
  The verb CHEAT has 4 senses:

1. deprive somebody of something by deceit

2. defeat someone through trickery or deceit

3. engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud

4. be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage

  Familiarity information: CHEAT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHEAT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bearded darnel; cheat; darnel; Lolium temulentum; tare

Hypernyms ("cheat" is a kind of...):

rye grass; ryegrass (any of several annual or perennial Eurasian grasses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Bromus secalinus; cheat; chess

Hypernyms ("cheat" is a kind of...):

brome; bromegrass (any of various woodland and meadow grasses of the genus Bromus; native to temperate regions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone who leads you to believe something that is not true

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster

Hypernyms ("cheat" is a kind of...):

offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cheat"):

dissembler; dissimulator; hypocrite; phoney; phony; pretender (a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives)

misleader (someone who leads astray (often deliberately))

imitator; impersonator (someone who (fraudulently) assumes the appearance of another)

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

liar; prevaricator (a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly)

charlatan; mountebank (a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes)

obscurantist (a person who is deliberately vague)

sandbagger (someone who deceives you about his true nature or intent in order to take advantage of you)

two-timer (someone who deceives a lover or spouse by carrying on a sexual relationship with somebody else)

utterer (someone who circulates forged banknotes or counterfeit coins)

fortune hunter (a person who seeks wealth through marriage)

counterfeiter; forger (someone who makes copies illegally)

finagler; wangler (a deceiver who uses crafty misleading methods)

falsifier (someone who falsifies)

defalcator; embezzler; peculator (someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use)

betrayer; double-crosser; double-dealer; traitor; two-timer (a person who says one thing and does another)

dodger; fox; slyboots (a shifty deceptive person)

decoy; steerer (a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot))

chiseler; chiseller; defrauder; gouger; grifter; scammer; swindler (a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud)

bluffer; four-flusher (a person who tries to bluff other people)

figurehead; front; front man; nominal head; straw man; strawman (a person used as a cover for some questionable activity)

Derivation:

cheat (engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

cheat; rig; swindle

Context example:

that book is a fraud

Hypernyms ("cheat" is a kind of...):

fraud (intentional deception resulting in injury to another person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cheat"):

cozenage; scam (a fraudulent business scheme)

bunco; bunco game; bunko; bunko game; con; con game; confidence game; confidence trick; flimflam; hustle; sting (a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property)

gip; gyp ((sometimes offensive) an act of swindling or cheating)

pyramiding (a fraudulent business practice involving some form of pyramid scheme e.g., the chain of distribution is artificially expanded by an excessive number of distributors selling to other distributors at progressively higher wholesale prices until retail prices are unnecessarily inflated)

holdout (the act of hiding playing cards in a gambling game so they are available for personal use later)

swiz (British slang for a swindle)

shell game; thimblerig (a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under)

Derivation:

cheat (defeat someone through trickery or deceit)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A deception for profit to yourself

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

cheat; cheating

Hypernyms ("cheat" is a kind of...):

deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation (the act of deceiving)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cheat"):

gerrymander (an act of gerrymandering (dividing a voting area so as to give your own party an unfair advantage))

Derivation:

cheat (deprive somebody of something by deceit)

• CHEAT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cheat    ... he / she / it cheats   
Past simple: cheated   
Past participle: cheated   
-ing form: cheating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deprive somebody of something by deceit

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

cheat; chisel; rip off

Context example:

They chiseled me out of my money

Hypernyms (to "cheat" is one way to...):

victimise; victimize (make a victim of)

"Cheat" entails doing...:

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cheat"):

bunco; con; defraud; diddle; goldbrick; hornswoggle; mulct; nobble; rook; scam; short-change; swindle; victimize (deprive of by deceit)

beguile; hoodwink; juggle (influence by slyness)

welch; welsh (cheat by avoiding payment of a gambling debt)

whipsaw (victimize, especially in gambling or negotiations)

beat; bunk (avoid paying)

bilk (cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money)

gip; gyp ((sometimes offensive) to cheat or swindle)

fleece; gazump; hook; overcharge; pluck; plume; rob; soak; surcharge (rip off; ask an unreasonable price)

cozen (cheat or trick)

gazump (raise the price of something after agreeing on a lower price)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence examples:

Sam cannot cheat Sue
They cheat him of all his money

Derivation:

cheat (a deception for profit to yourself)

cheater (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Defeat someone through trickery or deceit

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

cheat; chicane; chouse; jockey; screw; shaft

Hypernyms (to "cheat" is one way to...):

beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

cheat (the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme)

cheater (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

cheat; chisel

Context example:

Who's chiseling on the side?

Hypernyms (to "cheat" is one way to...):

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cheat"):

job (profit privately from public office and official business)

shark (play the shark; act with trickery)

rig; set up (arrange the outcome of by means of deceit)

cozen (act with artful deceit)

crib (use a crib, as in an exam)

cook; fake; falsify; fudge; manipulate; misrepresent; wangle (tamper, with the purpose of deception)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue cheat

Derivation:

cheat; cheater (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

betray; cheat; cheat on; cuckold; wander

Context example:

Might her husband be wandering?

Hypernyms (to "cheat" is one way to...):

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cheat"):

two-time (carry on a romantic relationship with two people at the same time)

fool around; play around (commit adultery)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot cheat Sue

 Context examples 

I believe that on the day of the murder Adair had discovered that Moran was cheating.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Refreshment—a—underneath this roof—particularly punch—would—a—choke me—unless—I had—previously—choked the eyes—out of the head—a—of—interminable cheat, and liar—HEEP!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then he told him everything; how his brothers had cheated and robbed him, and yet that he had borne all those wrongs for the love of his father.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I have been cheated and befooled; but a man learns wisdom at last, and never again do I give countenance to a prize-fight.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“He wasn't the one to be cheated.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Here also we made some acquaintances, who almost contrived to cheat me into happiness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He did cheat, I saw him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I do not know whether Wolf Larsen cheated or not,—a thing he was thoroughly capable of doing,—but he won steadily.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“Poor Fanny! not allowed to cheat herself as she wishes!”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If their evenings at the park were concluded with cards, he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good hand.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)