Definition

1. Noun:

   • A person who acts dishonestly to gain an advantage: A "cheat" is someone who deceives others or breaks rules for personal benefit.
   • An act of deception or fraud: A "cheat" can also refer to the dishonest act itself.
   • (Botany) Common names for certain weedy plants: In specific contexts, "cheat" refers to annual grasses like Bromus secalinus (cheat grass) found in fields.

2. Verb:

   • To act dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage: The core meaning is to deceive, defraud, or break rules.
   • To be sexually unfaithful to a partner: Often used with "on" to indicate infidelity in a relationship.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • He was exposed as a cheat during the exam. (He was revealed to be a person who acted dishonestly.)
  • The tax scheme was a clever cheat. (The tax scheme was a clever act of fraud.)
  • The field was overrun with cheat. (The field was full of the weedy grass.)

• Verb:

  • Students must not cheat on tests. (Students must not act dishonestly on tests.)
  • She discovered he had been cheating on her for months. (She discovered he had been unfaithful to her.)
  • The salesman tried to cheat me out of my money. (The salesman tried to defraud me of my money.)

Advanced Usage

• "cheat death": to narrowly avoid dying.
  • The adventurer cheated death multiple times during the expedition.
• "cheat the system": to find a way to avoid rules or payments unfairly.
  • He found a loophole to cheat the system and avoid taxes.

Variants and Related Words

• Cheater (n): Another word for a person who cheats.
  • The game was ruined by a known cheater.
• Cheating (n/adj): The act or practice of being dishonest.
  • Cheating is strictly prohibited. (n)
  • He was expelled for cheating behavior. (adj)

Synonyms

• Verb: Deceive, defraud, swindle, trick, con.
• Noun: Swindler, fraud, impostor, deceiver.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Cheat on: To be unfaithful to a romantic partner.
  • He confessed to cheating on his wife.
• Cheat out of: To deprive someone of something through deceit.
  • They cheated the elderly couple out of their life savings.

Related Idioms

• Cheat sheet: A small piece of paper with information used dishonestly in a test, or more generally, any quick reference guide.
  • He hid a cheat sheet in his calculator during the exam. (dishonest)
  • I made a cheat sheet for all the important commands. (reference guide)
• Cheat the hangman: To escape execution or a death sentence.
  • The prisoner cheated the hangman by dying in his cell.

Noun

1. a deception for profit to yourself
2. the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme
   • that book is a fraud
3. someone who leads you to believe something that is not true
4. weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat
5. weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous

Verb

1. be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage
   • She cheats on her husband
   • Might her husband be wandering?
2. engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud
   • Who's chiseling on the side?
3. defeat someone through trickery or deceit
4. deprive somebody of something by deceit
   • The con-man beat me out of $50
   • This salesman ripped us off!
   • we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme
   • They chiseled me out of my money