deceit
/dɪˈsiːt/ noun
Forms deceits deceipt
- noun An act or practice intended to deceive; a trick. “The whole conversation was merely a deceit.”
- noun An act of deceiving someone.
- noun (uncountable) The state of being deceitful or deceptive.
- noun (law) The tort or fraudulent representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth and with intent to induce reliance on it; the plaintiff justifiably relies on the deception, to his injury.
- noun (rare, collective) A group of lapwings.
Synonyms
trick fraud deception trickery imposition hype dupery fiddle fetch hocus-pocus jugglery legerdemain list mislead prestidigitation Punic faith rinky-dink ruse sleight of hand subterfuge fraudulence misrepresentation dissembling dissimulation
Etymology
From Middle English deceyte, from Old French deceite, deçoite, from decevoir (“to deceive”), from Latin dēcipere (“to cheat, mislead”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun An attempt or disposition to deceive or lead into error; any declaration, artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false; a contrivance to entrap; deception; a wily device; fraud.
- noun Any trick, collusion, contrivance, false representation, or underhand practice, used to defraud another. When injury is thereby effected, an action of deceit, as it called, lies for compensation.
Etymology [OF. deceit, des, decept (cf. deceite, de), fr. L. deceptus deception, fr. decipere. See Deceive.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “deceit”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details