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The practices of a knave; petty villainy; fraud; trickery; a knavish action. This is flat knavery, to take upon you another man's name. Shak.

Like or characteristic of a knave; given to knavery; trickish; fraudulent; dishonest; villainous; as, a knavish fellow, or a knavish trick. "Knavish politicians." Macaulay.

In a knavish manner; dishonestly; fraudulently. Holland.

sh ; to whip or scourge with a lash, or with something like one. We lash the pupil, and defraud the ward. Dryden.

xtreme evilness of nature or influence; perniciousness; heinousness; as, the malignity of fraud. [R.]

Evil conduct; fraudulent practices; misbehavior, corruption, or extortion in office.

te a convention of delegates; to manipulate the stock market; also, to manage artfully or fraudulently; as, to manipulate accounts, or election returns.

on of political bodies; sometimes, a management or treatment for purposes of deception or fraud.

An extract of quassia licorice, fraudulently used by brewers in order to economize malt and hops. Craig. Hard multum, a preparation made from Cocculus Indicus, etc., used to impart an intoxicating quality to beer.

The obtaining gifts of escheat by fraud or surprise. Bell.

Hence: To bring together or make up unfairly and fraudulently, in order to secure a certain result; as, to pack a jury or a causes. The expected council was dwindling into . . . a packed assembly of Italian bishops. Atterbury.

o disregard; to neglect. (b) To excuse; to spare; to overlook. -- To pass off, to impose fraudulently; to palm off. "Passed himself off as a bishop." Macaulay. -- To pass (something) on or upon (some one), to put upon as a trick or cheat; to palm off. "She passed the child on her husband for a boy." Dryden. -- To pa…

To palm off by fraud; to cheat at cards. [Obs.] Swift.

The act or practice of peculating, or of defrauding the public by appropriating to one's own use the money or goods intrusted to one's care for management or disbursement; embezzlement. Every British subject . . . active in the discovery of peculations has been ruined. Burke.

Involving, or characterized by, perfidy. "Involved in this perfidious fraud." Milton.

cticed under the pretext of religion; prompted by mistaken piety; as, pious errors; pious frauds.

by open force from an enemy; pillage; spoil; booty; also, that which is taken by theft or fraud. "He shared in the plunder." Cowper.

To take clandestinely or fraudulently. He pocketed pay in the names of men who had long been dead. Macaulay. To pocket a ball (Billiards), to drive a ball into a pocket of the table. -- To pocket an insult, affront, etc., to receive an affront without open resentment, or without seeking redress. "I must pocket up thes…

Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others. It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than by violence. Macaulay.…

eclare or affirm; as, he pronounced the book to be a libel; he pronounced the act to be a fraud. The God who hallowed thee and blessed, Pronouncing thee all good. Keble.