cheat

verb

1. (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.”

2. (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.”

   “After he found out his wife cheated, he left her.”

   “While the nonavoidant passive-aggressive cheats for the sexual gratification and tries to disguise his or her cheating afterwards, in contrast, the passive-aggressive avoidant cheats less for the sex than to send a message[…]”

3. (transitive)To avoid a seemingly inevitable thing.

   “He cheated death when his car collided with a moving train.”

   “I feel as if I've cheated fate.”

4. (transitive)To deceive; to fool; to trick.

   “My ex-wife cheated me out of $40,000.”

   “He cheated his way into office.”

   “I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island.”

   “[T]he holly providentially planted about the house, to cheat winter of its dreariness, and throw in a gleam of green summer to cheer the fireside:—all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind.”

   “The gig ended with Rotten uttering the now famous line, “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?” On January 17, the Sex Pistols split up.”

5. (informal, intransitive)To disregard self-imposed restrictions or commitments in favour of resting or indulging oneself.

noun

1. (countable)An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.

   “When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat.”

2. (countable)Someone who cheats.

   “And he smote Corinius on his shaven jowl with the dice box, calling him cheat and mangy rascal, whereupon Corinius drew forth a bodkin to smite him in the neck withal; but some went betwixt them, and with much ado and much struggling and cursing they were parted, and it being shown that the dice were not loaded, the son of Corund was fain to make amends to Corinius, and so were they set at one again.”

   “The caseworker couldn't understand how I could have stretched out my last bit of money for so long. She seemed convinced that I was "hiding" income from her and interrogated me for I don't know how long […] The system seems based on the assumption that people are "welfare cheats. If you don't speak English or are marginal in some other way, it's worse. I wish they'd put the Defense Department through what we go through.”

3. (uncountable)The weed cheatgrass.
4. (uncountable)A card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies.
5. (countable)A hidden means of gaining an unfair advantage in a video game, often by entering a cheat code.

   “I've had a number of requests for a cheat for Turrican the first. Yes, there is a keypress built in […]”

   “Unpause the game, then repause the game and enter any of the following cheats: […]”

6. (obsolete, uncountable)A sort of low-quality bread.

   “The raueled cheat therfore is generallie ſo made that out of one buſhell of meale, after two and twentie pounds of bran be ſifted and taken from it (wherevnto they ad the gurgeons that riſe from the manchet) they make thirtie cast, euerie lofe weighing eightéene ounces into the ouen and ſixteene ounces out[…]”

   “Takes part with them, at ſhore: their pureſt cheat, / Thrice boulted, kneaded, and ſubdu'd in paſt[…]”

   “Where by the way note, that loaves made of pure Wheaten Meal require both more Leaven and more labouring, and more baking than either coarſe Cheat or than Bread Mingled of Meal and Grudgins.”