Definitions for: Fraud


[n] something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
[n] intentional deception resulting in injury to another person
[n] a person who makes deceitful pretenses



Webster (1913) Definition: Fraud (fr[add]d), n. [F. fraude, L. fraus, fraudis;
prob. akin to Skr. dh[=u]rv to injure, dhv[.r] to cause to
fall, and E. dull.]
1. Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an
unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right
or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem;
deceit; trick.

If success a lover's toil attends, Few ask, if fraud
or force attained his ends. --Pope.

2. (Law) An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose
of obtaining some valuable thing or promise from another.

3. A trap or snare. [Obs.]

To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud. --Milton.

Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission
which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended
to be such. --Mozley & W.

Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to
benefit the church or accomplish some good end, upon the
theory that the end justified the means.

Statute of frauds (Law), an English statute (1676), the
principle of which is incorporated in the legislation of
all the States of this country, by which writing with
specific solemnities (varying in the several statutes) is
required to give efficacy to certain dispositions of
property. --Wharton.

Syn: Deception; deceit; guile; craft; wile; sham; strife;
circumvention; stratagem; trick; imposition; cheat. See
Deception.

Synonyms: dupery, fake, faker, fraudulence, hoax, humbug, imposter, impostor, pretender, pseud, pseudo, put-on, role player, sham, shammer

See Also: beguiler, cheat, cheat, cheater, chicanery, collateral fraud, constructive fraud, crime, deceiver, election fraud, extrinsic fraud, fraud in fact, fraud in the factum, fraud in the inducement, goldbrick, guile, intrinsic fraud, law-breaking, legal fraud, mail fraud, namedropper, Piltdown hoax, Piltdown man, positive fraud, rig, ringer, shenanigan, slicker, swindle, trickery, trickster, wile

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