Obs. or arch. Forms: 4 cheitur, 5 chetowre, 6 chetor, 6–7 cheatour, 7 cheator, 6– cheater. [ME. chetour, aphetic f. achetour, eschetour, ESCHEATOR.]
† 1. The officer appointed to look after the king’s escheats; an escheator. (The 17th c. quots. show its passage into the later sense.) Obs.
c. 1330. Pol. Songs (1839), 338. At justices, at shirreves, cheiturs, and chaunceler.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 73. Chetowre, confiscator, caducarius.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, Restit., § 13. 218. Cheaters of men’s inheritances, unjust judges, [etc.].
1656. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., II. 201. As a Cheater may pick the purses of innocent people, by showing them something like the Kings broad seal, which was his own forgery.
† b. fig. Obs.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. i. 111. I play’d the Cheater for thy Fathers hand. Ibid. (1598), Merry W., I. iii. 77. I will be Cheaters to them both, and they shall bee Exchequers to mee. Ibid. (1600), Sonn., cli. Then gentle cheater urge not my amisse, Least guilty of my faults thy sweet selfe prove.
† 2. A dishonest gamester, a sharper. Obs.
1532. Dice-Play, B iiij. They call theyr worthy arte by a newe found name, callinge themselues Chetors.
1591. Florio, Sec. Fruites, xii. 169. Milk-maides to daunce, and cheaters to the dice.
1637. Wotton, Let. Prof. Reg. Div. Cambr. That Pack of Reverend Cheaters, among whom Religion was shuffled like a pack of Cards, and the Dice were set upon us.
3. One who cheats or deals fraudulently; a deceiver; a swindler. (A systematic or habitual cheater is now called a CHEAT.)
1607. Dekker, Knt.’s Conjur. (1842), 52. Vnthrifts cheaters and the rest of their faction … were borne downe.
1614. [see CHEATEE].
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess. (1669), 81. It is the nature of Ambition to make men Lyars and Cheaters.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 134. Hard Texts are Nuts (I will not call them Cheaters).
1815. Scott, Guy M., iii. It is the resource of cheaters, knaves, and cozeners.
1820. Keats, Otho Gt., V. v. I was the fool, she was the cheater!
1831–72. [see CHEATEE].
1881. Jefferies, Wood Magic, I. vii. 201. What a cheater he is.
† 4. Tame cheater: ? a decoy duck or other tame animal used as a decoy. Shaks. plays on other senses, and Scott uses it with allusion to Shakespeare’s application of it to Pistol.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 105. Hee’s no Swaggerer (Hostesse:) a tame Cheater, hee: you may stroake him as gently, as a Puppie Greyhound.
1625. Fletcher, Fair Maid Inn, IV. ii. You … will be drawn into the net by this decoy-duck, this tame cheater.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. iii. Sinking from ruffling bullies into tame cheaters.
