cheat
Forms
- present (v1)
- cheat
- past (v2)
- cheated
- past participle (v3)
- cheated
- present participle
- cheating
- 3rd person singular
- cheats
- Plural
- cheats
Definitions
1.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.
2.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.
- After he found out his wife cheated, he left her.
3.To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing.
- I feel as if I've cheated fate.
- He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.
4.To deceive; to fool; to trick.
- He cheated his way into office.
- My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.
- 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.
1.An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.
- When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat.
2.The weed cheatgrass.
3.Synonym of bullshit (“a card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies”).
4.Someone who cheats.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3415
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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.