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Definitions for: Deceit
[n] the act of deceiving
[n] the quality of being fraudulent
[n] a misleading falsehood
Webster (1913) Definition: 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.
Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and
falsifying the balances by deceit. --Amos viii.
5.
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. --Milton.
Yet still we hug the dear deceit. --N. Cotton.
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.
Synonyms: deception, deception, dissembling, dissimulation, fraudulence, misrepresentation
See Also: blind, bluff, cheat, cheating, chicanery, delusion, dishonesty, dissembling, double-dealing, duplicity, duplicity, equivocation, evasion, exaggeration, facade, fakery, false statement, falsehood, falsification, falsity, feigning, feigning, four flush, fraudulence, guile, half-truth, hanky panky, head game, hocus-pocus, illusion, impersonation, imposture, indirection, jiggery-pokery, magnification, misrepresentaation, obscurantism, overstatement, pretence, pretence, pretending, pretense, pretense, shenanigan, simulation, skulduggery, skullduggery, slickness, snow job, subterfuge, trickery, trickery, untruth, wile, window dressing
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