“Cheats” is a form of
cheat
/ˈt͡ʃiːt/ verb, noun
Forms cheats cheating cheated
- verb (intransitive) 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.”
- verb (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. “My husband cheated on me with his secretary.”
- verb (transitive) To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing. “He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.”
- verb (transitive) To deceive; to fool; to trick. “My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.”
- verb (informal, intransitive) To disregard self-imposed restrictions or commitments in favour of resting or indulging oneself.
- noun (countable) An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.
- noun (countable) Someone who cheats.
- noun (uncountable) The weed cheatgrass.
- noun (card games, uncountable) Synonym of bullshit (“a card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies”).
- noun (video games, countable) A hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a video game, often by entering a cheat code.
- noun (obsolete) A sort of low-quality bread.
Synonyms
step out on rook blench lirt burn beguile fraud trick imposition imposture cheater bandit bullshit darnel tare bearded darnel Lolium temulentum chess Bromus secalinus deceiver trickster beguiler slicker swindle rig cheating rip off chisel chouse shaft
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.
Noun from verb and/or Middle English chete, aphetic form of achete, escheat, eschete (“the reversion of property to the state”), from Anglo-Norman eschete and Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), past participle of escheoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin) ex- + cadere (“fall”).
Inherited from Middle English chet (“low-quality bread”), of unknown origin; compare manchet.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception; a fraud; a trick; imposition; imposture.
- noun One who cheats or deceives; an impostor; a deceiver; a cheater.
- verb To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to swindle.
- verb To beguile. Sir W. Scott.
Etymology [rob. an abbrevation of escheat, lands or tenements that fall to a lord or to the state by forfeiture, or by the death of the tenant without heirs; the meaning being explained by the frauds, real or supposed, that were resorted to in procuring escheats. See Escheat.]
Etymology [See CHeat, n., Escheat.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cheat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details