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 that 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. Adlington, Apuleius, 41. So (… hauing 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. Ibid. (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, Caveat, 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, E 2. 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. Shaks., 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, Woodstock, xxxvi. A make to a million, but we trine to the nubbing cheat … to-morrow.
† 4. 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.
a. 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. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Mon. Ord. (1863), 211. He insisted that the institution of the priesthood was a cheat.
5. 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), N j 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. 23/307. So Cheats, to play with those still aime, That do not understand the Game.
1672. Head & Kirkman (title), The English Rogue Described,… Comprehending 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, Æneis, Ded. (Arb.), 3. As for Ennius, 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 (1597), C 2. Haue in a 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 (Loliun temulentum), Corn Brome (Bromus secalinus), and ‘Wild Oats.’
