cheat

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to deprive somebody of something by deceit

   No one cheats at this poker game and lives to tell about it.

2. 2
   verb

   to engage in deceitful behavior

   You tried to cheat me!

3. 3
   verb

   to be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage

   They cheat on each other.

4. 4
   verb

   To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation.

   My brother flunked biology because he cheated on his mid-term.

5. 5
   verb

   To be unfaithful to one's spouse or partner; to commit adultery, or to engage in sexual or romantic conduct with a person other than one's partner in contravention of the rules of society or agreement in the relationship.

   My husband cheated on me with his secretary.

6. 6
   verb

   To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing.

   He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.

7. 7
   verb

   To deceive; to fool; to trick.

   My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.

8. 8
   noun

   An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.

   When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat.

Etymology

Verb from Middle English achetan, variant of escheten, from Old French escheat, past participle of escheoir, escheoiter, from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin) ex- + cadere (“fall”). Displaced native Old English beswīcan. Noun from verb and/or Middle English chete, aphetic form of achete, escheat, eschete (“the reversion of property to the state”), from Anglo-Norman eschete and Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), past participle of escheoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin)…