cheat

Formscheats, cheating, cheated

Pluralcheats

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To break the rules of a game, contest, or system in order to gain an unfair advantage.

   Players who cheat in tournaments face lifetime bans.

   She cheated to finish the race ahead of her rivals.

   Note

   The verb came through Middle English acheten, a variant of escheten, and pushed aside the native Old English beswīcan. In its rule-breaking use it is intransitive, and on introduces the thing being gamed: he cheated on his mid-term. That same on also introduces the wronged partner in the infidelity meaning, so the object of on decides which meaning you have, whether a test or a person.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To be unfaithful to one's spouse or partner by engaging in romantic or sexual conduct with someone else.

   Couples often separate after one partner cheats.

   She suspected her husband might cheat while he was abroad.

   Similarstray

   Note

   Here the rules broken are those of a relationship. The wronged partner follows on, and the third person follows with: my husband cheated on me with his secretary. Either can be dropped, leaving the bare verb: after he found out his wife cheated. Clinical prose uses it just as plainly. Martin Kantor's Distancing (2003) describes someone who "cheats less for the sex than to send a message."

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A person who breaks rules or acts dishonestly to gain an unfair advantage.

   The other players quickly branded him a cheat.

   Casinos use cameras to catch cheats at the tables.

   Similarcheater

   Note

   The noun for the person can be flung as an insult without an article. In E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922), one man calls another "cheat and mangy rascal." Cheater means the same but is the informal choice. Cheat is the plain noun for anyone who breaks the rules, from the card table to the welfare office.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To deceive or trick someone, especially in order to take something from them or deny them their due.

   The contractor cheated his clients by using cheaper materials.

   Swindlers cheat the elderly out of their pensions.

   Similarswindle, defraud, deceive, trick, con

   Note

   The deceiving verb usually names what the victim loses. Shakespeare's The Tempest has a sorcerer who "hath cheated me of this island," and Washington Irving has holly planted "to cheat winter of its dreariness." Modern English prefers out of: she cheated me out of $40,000. A related pattern, cheat one's way into something, turns the trick into a route to a place or office.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An act of deception or fraud, or the means by which such deception is carried out.

   Investigators exposed the elaborate cheat behind the charity.

   The loaded dice were a cheat designed to fleece newcomers.

   Similartrick, fraud, imposture, imposition

   Note

   The noun has its own line of descent. It comes from Middle English chete, clipped from eschete, meaning the reversion of property to the state. That word goes back to an Old French term for "that which falls to one" and ultimately to Latin cadere, "fall." The noun can stretch from a single trick to a whole illusion, as in Dryden's Aureng-zebe (1675): "When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat."

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In a video game, a concealed way to gain an unfair advantage, often unlocked by entering a special code.

   Speedrunners disagree about whether using a cheat counts as a real record.

   The developers patched the game to disable several popular cheats.

   Similarhack

   Note

   Gamers treat this cheat as countable and tied to a particular title. Phil Howard's "Cheat Mode" column in Amstrad Action (1992) answers requests "for a cheat for Turrican." It is often a keypress or code built into the game itself, and the word anchors compounds such as cheat code and cheat mode.

7. 7
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To set aside one's own diet, training, or other self-imposed rules in order to rest or indulge oneself.

   Most gym-goers cheat now and then with a favorite snack.

   He cheated on his strict routine the night after the marathon.

   Similarindulge, splurge

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To escape or evade something that appeared certain or inevitable.

   The survivors cheated death after days adrift at sea.

   Clever accounting let the firm cheat bankruptcy for another year.

   Similarescape, evade, elude, avoid, dodge

   Note

   Death is the classic object, with fate close behind: he cheated death when his car collided with a train. Treat cheat death as a near-fixed phrase. The transitive verb casts the expected outcome as a rival who was owed a win and never collected, which is why it suits narrow escapes rather than ordinary avoidance.

9. 9
   noununcountable

   A card game in which players aim to shed all the cards from their hand, frequently by lying about what they have played.

   A noisy game of cheat broke out at the back of the bus.

   In cheat, calling a bluff at the right moment can saddle an opponent with the whole pile.

   Note

   The name of this card game spells out its winning strategy. The game also goes by I Doubt It and by the blunter bullshit or BS. Cheat is the name to use at a family table or in a classroom. Because it names the game rather than a player, it takes no article: a game of cheat, they were playing cheat.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    A weedy annual grass, commonly called cheatgrass, that invades rangelands and crowds out other plants.

    Wildfires spread quickly where cheat has taken over the range.

    After the burn, cheat was the first plant to return to the slope.

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