fraud

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved or unlawful gain.

   When success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.

2. 2
   noun

   A trap or snare.

   to draw the proud King Ahab into fraud

3. 3
   noun

   something intended to deceive

4. 4
   noun

   intentional deception resulting in injury to another person

5. 5
   noun

   a person who makes deceitful pretenses

6. 6
   noun

   The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.

7. 7
   noun

   The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.

8. 8
   noun

   A person who performs any such trick.

Etymology

From Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).