▪ I. fraud, n.
(frɔːd)
Forms: 4–6 fraude, frawd(e, 4– fraud.
[a. OF. fraude, ad. L. fraude-m (fraus) deceit, injury.]
1. The quality or disposition of being deceitful; faithlessness, insincerity. Now rare.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3919 Alle for falsede, and frawde. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 162 Fle doubilnesse, fraud, and collusioun. 1508 Dunbar Twa mariit wemen 255, I semyt sober, and sueit, et sempill without fraud. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 74 The fraud of men was euer so. 1672 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 408, I do not believe there is any fraud in him. 1718 Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell ii. xxvi. 128 A Person of Simplicity without Fraud. 1827 Macaulay Machiav. Ess. (1854) 36 Vices..which are the natural defence of weakness, fraud and hypocrisy. |
| personified. 1606 Dekker Sev. Sinnes ii. (Arb.) 21 Frawd (with two faces) is his Daughter. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 88 The discredited paper securities of impoverished fraud, and beggared rapine. |
2. a. Criminal deception; the using of false representations to obtain an unjust advantage or to injure the rights or interests of another.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 128 In alle manere cause he sought þe right in skille, To gile no to fraude wild he neuer tille. 1382 Wyclif Mark x. 19 Do no fraude, worschipe thi fadir and modir. 1570 B. Googe Pop. Kingd. i. (1880) 7 But safely keepes that he hath long, with frawde and lying got. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 646 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not. 1726–7 Swift Gulliver i. vi. 67 They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft. 1829 Lytton Devereux iii. iii, Fraud has been practised. |
b. in
Law.
in fraud of,
to the fraud of: so as to defraud; also, to the detriment or hindrance of.
| [1278 Stat. Glouc. 6 Edw. I, c. 11 Ou par collusiun ou par fraude pur fere le termer perdre sun terme. 1292 Britton i. ii. §11 Ne nule manere de fraude.] 1590 Swinburne Testaments 151 The condition is reiected, as being made in fraude of mariage. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 622/2 The same Statutes..are often..wrested to the fraud of the subject. 1845 Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 268 And shall not have deposited or invested in fraud of his creditors. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Fraud, all deceitful practices in defrauding or endeavouring to defraud another of his known right, by means of some artful device, contrary to the plain rule of common honesty. |
3. a. An act or instance of deception, an artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured, a dishonest trick or stratagem.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. iv. 9 (Camb. MS.) The iustice Regal hadde whilom demed hem bothe to gon into exil for hir trecheryes and fraudes. c 1440 York Myst. xxxiii. 131 If ȝe feyne slike frawdis. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 10 b, Moo than a thousande wayes he hath by his craftly fraudes to deceyue man. 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues 317 The Pharisees..made great shews of Piety, to cover their Frauds and Rapines. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 126 ¶4 Declaiming against the frauds of any employment. 1836 J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. iii. (1852) 72 The fraud of imputing guilt to a known innocent being. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos II. xxix. 312 Most of the Dauphin's followers gloried in their successful fraud and murder. |
b. in
Law.
statute of frauds: the statute 29
Chas. II, c. 3, by which written memoranda were in many cases required to give validity to a contract.
| 1678 Act 29 Chas. II, c. 3 title, An Act for Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries. 1765 Blackstone Comm. i. 362 The frauds, naturally consequent upon this provision..produced [etc.]. 1827 Jarman Powell's Devises II. 29 Which prevents the statute of Frauds from being a bar. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-bk. Prop. Law vii. 38 An instance of what is deemed a sufficient fraud to enable equity to relieve. |
c. pious fraud: a deception practised for the furtherance of what is considered a good object;
esp. for the advancement of religion.
| [1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 898 Their accustomed lies, which they term Fraudes pieuses, pious beguilings.] 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 319 There is too much cause to suspect that there have been some Pious Frauds practised upon these Trismegistick Writings. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 419 ¶5 Pious Frauds were made use of to amuse Man⁓kind. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) II. iii. vii. 143 The pious fraud of a nurse who had substituted her own child for the youngest of the Emperor. |
| transf. 1868 Lowell Willows xxi, May is a pious fraud of the almanac, A ghastly parody of real Spring. |
4. a. A method or means of defrauding or deceiving; a fraudulent contrivance; in
mod. colloq. use, a spurious or deceptive thing.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 35 They had an happy fraud against excessive lamentation, by a common opinion that deep sorrows disturbed their ghosts. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 575 Surprize him first, and with hard Fetters bind; Then all his Frauds will vanish into Wind. 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 597 New from the corse, the scaly frauds diffuse Unsavoury stench of oil. 1782 Cowper Progr. Err. 17 Not all..Can..Discern the fraud beneath the specious lure. 1880 McCarthy Own Times III. 5 Many persons persisted in believing that his supposed suicide was but another fraud. 1890 L. B. Walford Mischief of Monica i, The whole place is a fraud..we can't live in a villa. |
b. colloq. of a person: One who is not what he appears to be; an impostor, a humbug;
spec. U.S. (see
quot. 1895).
| 1850 Dickens Reprinted Pieces (1866) 120 The begging-letter writer is one of the most shameless frauds and impositions of this time. 1885 F. B. Van Voorst Without a Compass 12, I had called him an old fraud. 1895 Standard Dict., Fraud..specifically..a person, firm, or corporation declared by the Postmaster-general..to be engaged in obtaining money by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, [etc.]..and therefore debarred from obtaining payment of money-orders or the delivery of registered letters. |
† 5. By Milton used in passive sense (as L.
fraus): State of being defrauded or deluded.
| 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 643 So glister'd the dire Snake, and into fraud Led Eve. 1671 ― P.R. i. 373 To all his Angels he proposed To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud, That he might fall in Ramoth. |
6. Comb., as
fraud squad;
† fraud-doing vbl. n.;
† fraud-wanting adj.;
fraud order U.S., an official order prohibiting the delivery of letters to a firm or individual suspected of making illegal use of the postal service.
| 1382 Wyclif Dan. xi. 21 He..shal weelde the rewme in *fraude doynge. |
| 1905 Calkins & Holden Art Mod. Advertising 258 It is often impossible to prosecute the advertisers, and the most the post-office department can do is to issue what is known as a *fraud order. Such an order peremptorily and without redress stops the mail of the advertiser. 1931 C. Kelly U.S. Postal Policy 150 Under a ‘fraud order’ all mail directed to such persons or company is stamped ‘Fraudulent’ on the outside and returned to the sender. |
| 1967 Economist 7 Jan. 49/2 There is also the *Fraud Squad, of gallant lay policemen undertaking (astonishingly well under the circumstances) inquiries that need the most sophisticated legal and financial expertise. 1971 Times 27 Sept. 3/3 Post Office investigators and members of Scotland Yard's Fraud Squad are searching for a gang of expert forgers. |
| 1600 Nashe Summer's Last Will F 4 *Fraud-wanting honestie. |
▪ II. † fraud, v. Obs. [ad. L. fraudāre, f. fraud-: see fraud n.] 1. trans. To defraud, cheat, or deceive (a person).
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 16 Muche deceipt used to fraude one an other. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 231 That Christen folkes should not be frauded of the holie Sacrament. 1623 Cockeram 11, To Deceiue, Defeate..Fraude, Defraude. |
2. To withhold (something) fraudulently.
| 1382 Wyclif Jas. v. 4 The hijre of ȝoure werkmen, that repiden ȝoure cuntrees, that is fraudid of ȝou. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. xxi. 231 If he hath frauded & retayned taxes. |
3. To obtain (something) by fraud.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. lxii. (1878) 140 Ill husbandrie waies has to fraud what he can. |
Hence
† ˈfrauding vbl. n. Also
† ˈfrauder, a defrauder.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 54 Fraudars, misdoars, sortylogers, spousbrekars. 1515 Barclay Egloges iii. (1570) C iij/2 Their dayly murther and forsing of women, Frauding of virgins, pilling of simple men. |