Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHEAT, v.t. [Sax. ceatt. In Ar. خَدَعَ gadaa, signifies to deceive, circumvent, seduce; to fail, to hide, to disguise, to defraud; كَادَ kaida, signifies to deceive, to lay snares; Eth. ኀይጠ chiet or kiet, signifies to cheat, to deceive, to defraud.]

1. To deceive and defraud in a bargain; to deceive for the purpose of gain in selling. Its proper application is to commerce, in which a person uses some arts, or misrepresentations, or withholds some facts, by which he deceives the purchaser.
2. To deceive by any artifice, trick or device, with a view to gain an advantage contrary to common honesty; as, to cheat a person at cards.
3. To impose on; to trick. It is followed by of or out of, and colloquially by into, as to cheat a child into a belief that a medicine is palatable.