The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cheat \Cheat\, n. [Perh. from OF. chet['e] goods, chattels.]
   Wheat, or bread made from wheat. [Obs.] --Drayton.
   [1913 Webster]

         Their purest cheat,
         Thrice bolted, kneaded, and subdued in paste.
                                                  --Chapman.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cheat \Cheat\, n. [rob. an abbrevation of escheat, lands or
   tenements that fall to a lord or to the state by forfeiture,
   or by the death of the tenant without heirs; the meaning
   being explained by the frauds, real or supposed, that were
   resorted to in procuring escheats. See Escheat.]
   1. An act of deception or fraud; that which is the means of
      fraud or deception; a fraud; a trick; imposition;
      imposture.
      [1913 Webster]

            When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. One who cheats or deceives; an impostor; a deceiver; a
      cheater.
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            Airy wonders, which cheats interpret. --Johnson
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Bot.) A troublesome grass, growing as a weed in grain
      fields; -- called also chess. See Chess.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) The obtaining of property from another by an
      intentional active distortion of the truth.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: When cheats are effected by deceitful or illegal
         symbols or tokens which may affect the public at large
         and against which common prudence could not have
         guarded, they are indictable at common law. --Wharton.

   Syn: Deception; imposture; fraud; delusion; artifice; trick;
        swindle; deceit; guile; finesse; stratagem.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cheat \Cheat\, v. i.
   To practice fraud or trickery; as, to cheat at cards.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cheat \Cheat\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cheated; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Cheating.] [See Cheat, n., Escheat.]
   1. To deceive and defraud; to impose upon; to trick; to
      swindle.
      [1913 Webster]

            I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his
            cunning hath cheated me of this island. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To beguile. --Sir W. Scott.
      [1913 Webster]

            To cheat winter of its dreariness.    --W. Irving.

   Syn: To trick; cozen; gull; chouse; fool; outwit; circumvent;
        beguile; mislead; dupe; swindle; defraud; overreach;
        delude; hoodwink; deceive; bamboozle.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Chess \Chess\, n. (Bot.)
   A species of brome grass (Bromus secalinus) which is a
   troublesome weed in wheat fields, and is often erroneously
   regarded as degenerate or changed wheat; it bears a very
   slight resemblance to oats, and if reaped and ground up with
   wheat, so as to be used for food, is said to produce narcotic
   effects; -- called also cheat and Willard's bromus. [U.
   S.]
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: Other species of brome grass are called upright
         chess, soft chess, etc.
         [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

cheat
    n 1: weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other
         cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous [syn:
         darnel, tare, bearded darnel, cheat, Lolium
         temulentum]
    2: weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a
       weed especially in wheat [syn: chess, cheat, Bromus
       secalinus]
    3: someone who leads you to believe something that is not true
       [syn: deceiver, cheat, cheater, trickster,
       beguiler, slicker]
    4: the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme; "that book is
       a fraud" [syn: swindle, cheat, rig]
    5: a deception for profit to yourself [syn: cheat, cheating]
    v 1: deprive somebody of something by deceit; "The con-man beat
         me out of $50"; "This salesman ripped us off!"; "we were
         cheated by their clever-sounding scheme"; "They chiseled me
         out of my money" [syn: cheat, rip off, chisel]
    2: defeat someone through trickery or deceit [syn: cheat,
       chouse, shaft, screw, chicane, jockey]
    3: engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud;
       "Who's chiseling on the side?" [syn: cheat, chisel]
    4: be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage; "She
       cheats on her husband"; "Might her husband be wandering?"
       [syn: cheat on, cheat, cuckold, betray, wander]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

159 Moby Thesaurus words for "cheat":
   ballot-box stuffing, bamboozle, bamboozlement, beat, befool,
   beguile, beguile of, bilk, blackleg, boodle, bunco, burn,
   cardsharping, charlatan, cheater, cheating, chicane, chicanery,
   chisel, chiseler, chouse, chouse out of, clinquant, cog,
   cog the dice, con, con man, confidence man, counterfeit, cozen,
   cozenage, cozener, crib, crook, deceit, deceive, deceiver,
   deception, defraud, defrauder, delude, diddle, diddler, diddling,
   dishonesty, do, do in, do out of, dodge, doodle, double-cross,
   double-dealer, double-dealing, duff, dummy, dupe, euchre, evade,
   fake, fakement, faker, falsify, fiddle, finagle, fishy transaction,
   flam, fleece, flimflam, flimflam man, flimflammer, fob, fool,
   forgery, frame-up, fraud, fraudulence, fraudulency, fudge,
   gerrymandering, gouge, graft, grift, gull, gyp, gyp artist,
   gyp joint, gypper, hanky-panky, have, hoax, hocus, hocus-pocus,
   hoodwink, humbug, illicit business, imitation, imposition,
   impostor, imposture, juggler, junk, lie, mace, mislead, mock,
   mountebank, mulct, operator, overreach, pack the deal, paste,
   phony, pigeon, pinchbeck, practice fraud upon, put-on, put-up job,
   racket, ream, rip off, rip-off, rogue, rook, scam, screw, sell,
   sell gold bricks, sham, shark, sharp practice, sharper, sharpie,
   shave, shift, shift about, shoddy, short, shortchange, simulacrum,
   skin, slick, stack the cards, stick, sting, sucker, swindle,
   swindler, take, take a dive, take in, thimblerig, throw a fight,
   tinsel, trick, trickery, trickster, two-timer, victimize,
   whited sepulcher