▪ I. cheat, n.1
(tʃiːt)
Forms: 4–6 chet, 4–7 chete, 6–7 cheate, 7 cheit, chate, 6– cheat.
[In sense 1, ME. chet(e, aphetic f. achet, var. of eschet, escheat. Sense 3 is of doubtful origin; senses 4– 9 appear to have been formed immed. from the vb.]
† 1. An escheat; property which falls to the lord of the fee by way of forfeit, fine, or lapse. Obs.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Mathias 193 Pylat gef Tyberea To Judas, & hyre gud also, As chet. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. iv. 175 Þorw ȝoure lawe..I lese many chetes [C-text, menye escheytes]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 73 Chete for the lorde, caducum, confiscarium, fisca. 1628 Coke On Litt. 140 a, It is called Marchett, as it were a chete or fine for mariage. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. lvi. (1739) 101 It is nonsense for a Conqueror to entitle himself by a cheat, where he had an elder Title by Conquest. |
† 2. Any product of conquest or robbery; booty, spoil. Obs. (With quot. 1592 cf. 3.)
| 1566 W. Adlington Apuleius 41 Having lost three of our souldiours we are come home with these present cheates. 1592 Greene Art Conny-catch. iii. 33 A Cunning villaine..had long time haunted this Cittizens house, and gotten many a cheat which he carried awaye safely. 1600 Holland Livy xxii. xx. 444 The taking off these vessels was not the best and goodliest cheate of their victorie. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. ii. 144 They suppose, that a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift. |
† 3. Thieves' Cant. According to Randall Holme, orig. A stolen thing (cf. quot. 1592 in 2); but as early as Harman's date (1567) used in general sense ‘thing, article’, usually preceded by some descriptive word. the cheat (= nubbing-cheat, topping-cheat, treyning-cheat): the gallows. (Cf. the Shakespeare passage, 1611.) Obs.
| 1567 Harman Caueat G ij (Peddelars Frenche) A smeling chete, a nose, a pratlynge chete, a tounge..a belly chete, an apern, a grunting chet, a pyg..hanging chattes, the gallowes. 1610 Rowlands Martin Mark-all F, Cheates, which word is vsed generally for things, as Tip me that Cheate, Giue me that thing..and so treyning cheate is as much to say, hanging things, or the Gallous. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 28 With Dye and drab, I purchas'd this Caparison, and my Reuennew is the silly Cheate. Gallowes, and Knocke, are too powerfull on the Highway. 1622 Fletcher Beggar's Bush iii. iii, To maund on the pad, and strike all the cheats [explained below To beg on the way, to rob all thou meets]. Ibid. v. i, F. Surprising a boores ken, for grunting cheates? P. Or cackling cheates? 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. iii. §68 Cheat, a stollen thing; but the word cheat joined to others hath then a variable signification. 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Crashing-cheats, teeth; [so 1725 New Cant. Dict.] 1743 Fielding Jon. Wild iv. ii. (D.) See what your laziness is come to; to the cheat, for thither will you go now, that's infallible. 1826 Scott Woodst. xxxvi, A make to a million, but we trine to the nubbing cheat..to-morrow. |
† 4. a. The action of cheating or defrauding; deception, fraud. Obs.
| 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 186 A false Prophet taken in the..most dangerous cheat, the cheat of soules. 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 65 For what does vast Wealth bring, but cheat. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iii. x. §5 'Tis plain Cheat and Abuse, when I make them [words] stand sometimes for one thing, and sometimes for another. 1696 Stanhope Chr. Pattern (1711) 179 The boasted pleasures of sensual..men are only..vanity and cheat. |
b. A fraud, deception, trick, imposition. to put a cheat on: to deceive, impose upon (arch.).
| 1648 Eikon Bas. 28 Which have no cloak or cheat of Religion to impose upon themselves or others. 1650 Fuller Pisgah i. vii. 18 The Gibeonites (who put a new cheat on the Israelites). 1690 Sc. Pasquils (1868) 293 Those who live by cheats and quirks. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 44 Which Cheat we saw them actually impose upon some other Travellers. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) I. lxvii. 81 He..had been noted for several cheats and even thefts. 1823 Lamb Elia ii. x. (1865) 300 For a man to put the cheat upon himself. 1850 A. Jameson Leg. Mon. Ord. (1863) 211 He insisted that the institution of the priesthood was a cheat. |
c. Cinematogr. (See quots. and cf. cheat v. 7). Also cheat shot.
| 1948 E. Lindgren Art of Film ii. v. 73 This procedure of concealing part of the action necessary to the taking of a shot by excluding it from the camera's field of view is known..as ‘cheating’, and the shot as a ‘cheat shot’. 1960 Consumer Rep. Jan. 10/2 A phony picture used in a commercial (known in the trade as a cheat shot). |
5. a. Applied to a person.
¶ In the following early instance, the sense is uncertain: it may be = cheater 4, persons used as decoy.
| a 1559 Dolman in Mirr. Mag. (1563) Nj a, (Ld. Hastings says) Shore's wife was my nyce cheate, The wholye whore, and eke the wyly peate. |
b. One who cheats; a swindler.
| 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 307 Cheats to play with those still aim, Who do not understand the game. 1671 Head & Kirkman (title) The English Rogue Described..a complete History of the most Eminent Cheats of both sexes. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Compensation Wks. (Bohn) I. 49 The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 403 Corinth..was a city of extortioners and cheats. |
c. A deceiver, an impostor.
| 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 80 Own yourself and the rest of your sisterhood to be cheats. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 546 ¶1, I should think myself a cheat in my way, if I should translate any thing from another tongue, and not acknowledge it. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. vi. v, If she were not a cheat, If Maud were all that she seem'd. |
† d. attrib. (Obs. rare.)
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneid Ded. (Arb.) 3 As for..Horace, Iuuenal, Persius, and thee rablement of such cheate Poëtes. |
† 6. Dice or ? false dice. Obs.
| 1532 Use of Dice Play B iv, Callinge them selues Chetors, and the dice Chetes [printed Cheters], borowing the terme from among our lawers, with whom all such casuals as fall vnto the Lord at the holding of his lets, as waifs, straies & such like bee called Chetes. Ibid. C iij, Haue in a rediness to be foisted in when time shalbe, your fine Chetes of all sorts. Ibid. C vj, I shall lend you a payre of the same sise that his chetes be. c 1590 Greene Mihil Mumchance 12 Haue in readines to be foysted in when time shall require your fine Cheates, and be sure you haue Bard sincke Dewces and Flat sincke Dewces. |
† 7. (See quots.) Obs.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 96/1 A..kind of Waistcoats are called Chates, because they are to be seen rich and gaudy before, when all the back part is no such thing. Ibid. iii. 258/1 Such Gallants wear not Cheats or half Sleeves, but..their Wastcoats are the same clear throughout. 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cheats,..also Wristbands or sham Sleeves worn for true, or whole ones. |
8. A game at cards, the point of which is to cheat without detection, and to detect cheating in others, failure in either attempt involving a forfeit.
9. A name given locally to certain grasses ‘from resemblance to the grain among which they grow’.
Britten & Holland name Darnel (Lolium temulentum), Corn Brome (Bromus secalinus), and ‘Wild Oats’.
| 1784 J. Smyth Tour U.S. II. 121 My fields consisted entirely of fine healthful clean wheat, without a single head of darnel or cheat. 1850 Rep. U.S. Comm. Patents Agric. 1849 455 Cheat is nothing more nor less than degenerated wheat. 1861 Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. IV. 351 ‘Chess’, or ‘cheat’ as it is sometimes called is a species of grass. 1863 Ibid. V. 865 Bromus secalinus, cheat, chess, is a foreign annual weed. 1866 J. E. Brogden Prov. Words Lincs. 39 The field is very full of cheats to-year. |
▸ cheat sheet n. slang (chiefly U.S.) a piece of paper bearing notes or instructions as an aid to memory, esp. when used surreptitiously by a student in an examination, etc.; a crib; also in extended use.
| 1935 G. Barker Janus i. 29 Which, sewn upon the *cheat-sheet of life, divert from cosmic legerdemain our obvious knowledge: that this face too must die. 1960 M. A. Felder Collegiate Slang 1 Cheat sheet, any written material used to cheat in a test. 1978 Eng. Jrnl. Dec. 58/2 Using a fake ID to buy wine or beer. Taking a cheat sheet into a test. 2000 Herald (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 12 May During a recent Labour Party night out..songsheets had to be provided for old Lefty classics such as Bandiera Rossa. Curiously, when this song is sung at SNP soirees no-one needs a cheat sheet. |
▪ II. † cheat, n.2 Obs.
Forms: 5 chiete, 5–6 chet, chete, 6 chett, 6–7 cheate, cheat, (8–9 Hist. cheat, chete).
[Derivation uncertain. Not in actual use since 17th c.]
Wheaten bread of the second quality, made of flour more coarsely sifted than that used for manchet, the finest quality. Comb. cheat-bread, cheat-loaf.
| c 1450 Bk. Curtasye iii. 452 Manchet and chet bred he shalle take. 1461–83 Househ. Ord. 69 To make continually of every busshell halfe chiete halfe rounde..xxvij loves. 1526 Ibid. 163 One chet loafe, one manchet, one gallon of ale. 1570 T. Wilson tr. Demosthenes' Olynth. Ep. Ded., Lyke to them that eating fine Manchet, are angry with others that feede on Cheate breade. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. vii. (1586) 26 b, The second called Siligo they used in their fynest Cheate. 1577 Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 154 The second [kind of bread] is the cheat or wheaton bread, so named bicause the coloure therof resembleth the graie or yellowish wheat. 1616 Chapman Batrachom. 3 Their purest cheat, Thrice boulted, kneaded, and subdued in past. 1655 Moufet & Benn. Health's Improv. (1746) 339 Our finest Manchet is made without Leaven, which maketh Cheat-Bread to be the lighter..and also the more wholesome. [1780 Arnot Hist. Edin. ii. (1816) 45, 41 kinds of wheaten bread—the finest called Manchet the second cheat or trencher bread. 1861 Our Eng. Home 79.] |
▪ III. cheat, v.
(tʃiːt)
Also 5 chetyn, 7 cheate.
[ME. chete, aphetic f. achete (acheat), phonetic variant of eschete, escheat.]
† 1. trans. To escheat, confiscate. Obs.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 73 Chetyn, confiscor, fisco. |
2. To defraud; to deprive of by deceit.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 79. 1594 ― Rich. III, i. i. 19 Cheated of Feature by dissembling Nature. 1616 Bullokar, Cheate, to cousin, to deceiue. 1679 Prideaux Lett. (1875) 68, I am unwilling a rogue should cheat me of 5l. 1821 J. Baillie Metr. Leg., Lady G.B. ix. 6 The Scaffold of its prey to cheat. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 71 If they were to be cheated of their right. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 328 You are lazy and mean to cheat us out of a whole chapter. |
3. a. To deceive, impose upon, trick.
| 1634 Milton Comus 155 To cheat the eye with blear illusion. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 52 All Fanatics cheat themselves with Words, mistaking them for Things. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 78 They would not by any means cheat and impose upon them. 1882 Shorthouse J. Inglesant II. 386 Let us cheat ourselves, if it be a cheat, with this fancy. |
b. To lead into (an action) by deception.
| 1856 De Quincey Confess. 264 He..could not but find..himself cheated into cordial admiration, by the splendour of the verses. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere x, They had tried to cheat her into sleeping. |
4. intr. a. To deal fraudulently, practise deceit.
| 1647 Cowley Mistr., Discov. iv, He would cheat for his relief. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §20 Cleon..could cheat at cards. Mod. Accused of cheating in an examination. |
b. to cheat on: to be sexually unfaithful to (one's spouse). Also without on. colloq. (chiefly U.S.).
| 1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra vi. 159 A woman married a louse that beat her and cheated on her. 1942 R. Chandler High Window xxx. 197 Eight months married and cheating on me with a piece of merchandise like that. 1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh ii. 107 D'yuh suppose dat he did catch his wife cheatin'? I don't mean wid no iceman, but wid some guy. 1959 ― Hughie 28 Come to figger it, I'll bet he even cheated on his wife that way. 1967 ‘E. Lindall’ Time too Soon vii. 81 He's only committing a normal infidelity. Tell me{ddd}who do you know who doesn't cheat, given the opportunity? 1972 Wodehouse Pearls, Girls, & Monty Bodkin iii. 47 My husband wouldn't have the nerve to cheat on me if you brought him all the girls in the Christmas number of Playboy asleep on a chair. 1979 R. Jaffe Class Reunion (1980) ii. iv. 209 Husbands always told their wives to go out and buy things when they were cheating. 1986 New Yorker 7 Apr. 36/2 Vincent has never cheated on his wife. |
5. trans. To beguile (weariness, tedium, etc.).
| 1712 Steele Spect. No. 406 ¶6 No Lay unsung to cheat the tedious Way. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. iv, The tuneless rhyme With which the warder cheats the time. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xi. 172 Devices by which the ladies..were wont to cheat fatigue. |
† 6. To obtain by cheating. Obs.
| 1727 Swift Art Polit. Lying Wks. 1755 III. i. 119 Making restitution of thousands he has cheated. 1737 Pope Hor. Epist. i. vi. 93 Something which for your honour they may cheat. |
7. trans. and intr. Cinematogr. To suppress or adapt (part of a film) during editing so as to create a desired illusion. So cheated ppl. a., cheating vbl. n. Cf. cheat n.1 4 c.
| 1929 I. Montagu tr. Pudovkin's On Film Technique vi. 192 Any movement or object outside the picture-frame or otherwise unremarked is said to be ‘cheated’. 1933 A. Brunel Filmcraft ii. 72 Get as close as you can in order to reveal your characters..in some detail... You can..‘cheat’ them nearer—that is, bring them closer together and photograph them at a slightly different angle from the previous scene. Ibid., You may have two characters by a settee in the centre foreground... For the second shot you can ‘cheat’ the settee nearer the door in order to facilitate or expedite your characters' progress. Ibid., ‘Cheating’ does not only apply to the position of characters, but to the position of the furniture and other objects in your sets. 1961 G. Millerson Telev. Production xviii. 347 The cheated substitute provides interesting possibilities. Here a series of representative parts are intercut to convey a composite impression. |