cheat

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English acheten, variant of escheten, from Old French escheoiter, from the noun (see below). Displaced native Old English beswīcan.

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.
3. (transitive) To manage to avoid something even though it seemed inevitable.
   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.
   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. 2018, Peter Smith, quoting Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols: The Pride of Punk, Rowman & Littlefield, page xxvi
5. (informal, intransitive) To disregard self-imposed restrictions or commitments (e.g. regarding diet or exercise) in favour of resting or indulging oneself.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English chete, an aphetic form of eschete (“the reversion of property to the state”), from Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), from the past participle of eschoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Vulgar Latin *excadēre, from Latin ex + cadere (“fall”).

noun

1. Someone who cheats.
2. An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of fraud or deception.
3. The weed cheatgrass.
4. (card games) A card game where the goal is to have no cards remaining in a hand, often by telling lies.
5. (video games) 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 […] 1992 January, Phil Howard, “Cheat Mode”, in Amstrad Action, number 76, page 32

Etymology 3

table Inherited from Middle English chet (“low-quality bread”), of unknown origin; compare manchet.

noun

1. (obsolete) 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[…] 1587, Raphaell Holinshed, Iohn Hooker, “Of the food and diet of the Engliſh”, in The firſt and ſecond volumes of Chronicles[…], volume I, London: Henry Denham, page 169
   Takes part with them, at ſhore: their pureſt cheat, / Thrice boulted, kneaded, and ſubdu'd in paſt[…] c. 1624, Homer, translated by George Chapman, The crowne of all Homers workes Batrachomyomachia[…], Iohn Bill, page 3
   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. 1746, Thomas Moffett, Christopher Bennet, Health's Improvement[…], London: T. Oſborne, page 339