cheats

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cheat.

   The dealer cheats the tourists out of their money every night.

   He cheats whenever the stakes get high enough to tempt him.

   Note

   The -s form carries every use of the verb, and an object usually signals which use is meant. With no object, someone cheats by breaking rules for advantage or by being unfaithful to a partner. With an object, they deceive a person or escape something that seemed unavoidable. The same spelling is also the plural noun, so "he cheats" and "the cheats" are told apart only by their grammar.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of cheat.

   The teacher singled out the cheats who had copied from a hidden phone.

   The game's developers patched the loophole that several cheats had exploited.

   Note

   One spelling covers both people and devices. Cheats can be people who cheat, or the frauds and tricks themselves. In gaming talk the word can name hidden shortcuts, often entered as cheat codes, so "the game's cheats" may be features rather than players. The old sense of a low-quality bread was obsolete and uncountable, so cheats never refers to it.

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