Search the Dictionary

e; to withhold from wrongfully; to injure by embezzlement; to cheat; to overreach; as, to defraud a servant, or a creditor, or the state; -- with of before the thing taken or withheld. We have defrauded no man. 2 Cor. vii. 2. Churches seem injured and defrauded of their rights. Hooker.

The act of defrauding; a taking by fraud. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

One who defrauds; a cheat; an embezzler; a peculator.

Privation by fraud; defrauding. [Obs.] Milton.

A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors. Blackstone.

To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with out. [Colloq.]

anything else; hence, in a bed sense, to deceive or circumvent. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. 1 Thess. iv. 6.

To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor. Thackeray.

To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to swindle. I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of this island. Shak.

To cheat, trick, defraud; -- followed by of, or out of; as, to chouse one out of his money. [Colloq.] The undertaker of the afore-cited poesy hath choused your highness. Landor.

An agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights, by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law. Bouvier. Abbott.

Fabricated in imitation of something else, with a view to defraud by passing the false copy for genuine or original; as, counterfeit antiques; counterfeit coin. "No counterfeit gem." Robinson (More's Utopia).

One who cheats or defrauds.

Any trick, collusion, contrivance, false representation, or underhand practice, used to defraud another. When injury is thereby effected, an action of deceit, as it called, lies for compensation.

To deprive by fraud or stealth; to defraud. [Obs.] Plant fruit trees in large borders, and set therein fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees. Bacon.

Wanting in honesty; void of integrity; faithless; disposed to cheat or defraud; not trustworthy; as, a dishonest man.

ty, or integrity in principle; want of fairness and straightforwardness; a disposition to defraud, deceive, or betray; faithlessness.

w), false representations concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of defrauding another. -- False rail (Naut.), a thin piece of timber placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it. -- False relation (Mus.), a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord appears in the next chord…

To oppress by severe exactions; to harass. To grind the subject or defraud the prince. Dryden.

To deceive; to cheat; to mislead; to trick; to defraud. The rulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed. Dryden. I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service. Coleridge.