'Deceit' definitions:
Definition of 'deceit'
(from WordNet)
noun
The quality of being fraudulent [syn: fraudulence, deceit]
noun
A misleading falsehood [syn: misrepresentation, deceit, deception]
noun
Definition of 'Deceit'
From: GCIDE
- Deceit \De*ceit"\, n. [OF. deceit, des[,c]ait, decept (cf. deceite, de[,c]oite), fr. L. deceptus deception, fr. decipere. See Deceive.]
- 1. An attempt or disposition to deceive or lead into error; any declaration, artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false; a contrivance to entrap; deception; a wily device; fraud. [1913 Webster]
- Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. --Amos viii. 5. [1913 Webster]
- Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- Yet still we hug the dear deceit. --N. Cotton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. (Law) 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.
- Syn: Deception; fraud; imposition; duplicity; trickery; guile; falsifying; double-dealing; stratagem. See Deception. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'deceit'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- art,
- artful dodge,
- artfulness,
- artifice,
- blind,
- cheating,
- chicane,
- chicanery,
- con,
- con game,
- conspiracy,
- contrivance,
- coup,
- craft,
- craftiness,
- cunning,
- cute trick,
- deceitfulness,
- deception,
- defrauding,
- design,
- device,
- dishonesty,
- dissemblance,
- dissimulation,
- dodge,
- double-cross,
- double-dealing,
- duplicity,
- expedient,
- fakement,
- falseheartedness,
- falseness,
- feint,
- fetch,
- flam,
- flimflam,
- fraud,
- fraudulence,
- furtiveness,
- gambit,
- game,
- gimmick,
- grift,
- guile,
- gyp,
- hanky-panky,
- hoax,
- humbug,
- hypocrisy,
- indirection,
- insidiousness,
- intrigue,
- jugglery,
- knavery,
- little game,
- maneuver,
- misrepresentation,
- monkey business,
- move,
- overreaching,
- plot,
- ploy,
- racket,
- red herring,
- ruse,
- scam,
- scheme,
- sell,
- sham,
- shift,
- shiftiness,
- sleight,
- slyness,
- sneak attack,
- sneakiness,
- stratagem,
- strategy,
- subterfuge,
- surreptitiousness,
- swindle,
- tactic,
- trapping,
- treacherousness,
- treachery,
- trick,
- trickery,
- underhandedness,
- wile,
- wily device