What does "cheat" mean?

Cheat: One who cheats or deceives; an impostor; a deceiver; a cheater. Airy wonders, which cheats interpret. Johnson 3. (Bot.) A troublesome grass, growing as a weed in grain fields; -- called also chess. See Chess.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Law) The obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth. Note: When cheats are effected by deceitful or illegal symbols or tokens which may affect the public at large and against which common prudence could not have guarded, they are indictable at common law. Wharton.
  2. 3.To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to swindle. I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island. Shak.
  3. 4.To beguile. Sir W. Scott. To cheat winter of its dreariness. W. Irving.
  4. 5.To practice fraud or trickery; as, to cheat at cards.
  5. 6.Wheat, or bread made from wheat. [Obs.] Drayton. Their purest cheat, Thrice bolted, kneaded, and subdued in paste. Chapman.

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