cheat

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See also: Cheat

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /t͡ʃiːt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Etymology 1

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Inherited from Middle English acheten, variant of escheten, from Old French escheoiter, from the noun (see below). Displaced native Old English beswīcan.

Verb

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cheat (third-person singular simple present cheats, present participle cheating, simple past and past participle cheated)

  1. (intransitive) To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation.
    Synonym: break the rules
    My brother flunked biology because he cheated on his mid-term.
  2. (intransitive) 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.
    Synonym: step out on
    My husband cheated on me with his secretary.
    After he found out his wife cheated, he left her.
    • 2003, Martin Kantor, Distancing: Avoidant Personality Disorder, page 137:
      While the nonavoidant passive-aggressive cheats for the sexual gratification and tries to disguise his or her cheating afterwards, in contrast, the passive-aggressive avoidant cheats less for the sex than to send a message […]
  3. (transitive) To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing.
    He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.
    I feel as if I've cheated fate.
  4. (transitive) To deceive; to fool; to trick.
    Synonyms: belirt, blench, lirt
    My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.
    He cheated his way into office.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
      I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island.
    • 1819 July 31, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rural Life in England”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number II, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 130:
      [T]he holly providentially planted about the house, to cheat winter of its dreariness, and throw in a gleam of green summer to cheer the fireside:—all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind.
    • 2018, Peter Smith, quoting Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page xxvi:
      The gig ended with Rotten uttering the now famous line, “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?” On January 17, the Sex Pistols split up.
  5. (informal, intransitive) To disregard self-imposed restrictions or commitments in favour of resting or indulging oneself.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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Inherited from Middle English chete, an aphetic form of eschete (“the reversion of property to the state”), from Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), from the past participle of eschoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Vulgar Latin *excadēre, from Latin ex + cadere (“fall”).

Noun

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cheat (plural cheats)

  1. An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.
    Synonyms: fraud, trick, imposition, imposture
  2. Someone who cheats.
    Synonym: (informal) cheater
  3. The weed cheatgrass.
  4. (card games) A card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies.
    Synonyms: bullshit, BS, I doubt it
  5. (video games) A hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a video game, often by entering a cheat code.
    • 1992 January, Phil Howard, “Cheat Mode”, in Amstrad Action, number 76, page 32:
      I've had a number of requests for a cheat for Turrican the first. Yes, there is a keypress built in […]
Derived terms
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derived from Etymology 1 or 2
Descendants
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  • → Dutch: cheat
  • → French: cheat
  • → German: Cheat
Translations
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Etymology 3

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Inherited from Middle English chet (“low-quality bread”), of unknown origin; compare manchet.

Noun

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cheat (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A sort of low-quality bread.
    • 1587, Raphaell Holinshed, Iohn Hooker, “Of the food and diet of the Engliſh”, in The firſt and ſecond volumes of Chronicles […] , volume I, London: Henry Denham, page 169:
      The raueled cheat therfore is generallie ſo made that out of one buſhell of meale, after two and twentie pounds of bran be ſifted and taken from it (wherevnto they ad the gurgeons that riſe from the manchet) they make thirtie cast, euerie lofe weighing eightéene ounces into the ouen and ſixteene ounces out […]
    • c. 1624, Homer, translated by George Chapman, The crowne of all Homers workes Batrachomyomachia […] ‎[1], Iohn Bill, page 3:
      Takes part with them, at ſhore: their pureſt cheat, / Thrice boulted, kneaded, and ſubdu'd in paſt […]
    • 1746, Thomas Moffett, Christopher Bennet, Health's Improvement […] ‎[2], London: T. Oſborne, page 339:
      Where by the way note, that loaves made of pure Wheaten Meal require both more Leaven and more labouring, and more baking than either coarſe Cheat or than Bread Mingled of Meal and Grudgins.
Translations
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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English cheat.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /tʃiːt/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: cheat

Noun

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cheat m (plural cheats)

  1. (video games) cheat (unfair advantage in a computer game)

Further reading

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  • “cheat” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English cheat.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cheat m (plural cheats)

  1. (video games) cheat

Portuguese

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Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pt

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English cheat.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cheat m (plural cheats)

  1. (video games) cheat (hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a video game)
    Synonyms: batota, trapaça, macete, hack

Derived terms

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