cheater

noun

cheat·​er ˈchē-tər How to pronounce cheater (audio)
plural cheaters
1
: one who cheats: such as
a
: one who violates rules dishonestly
a cheater at cards
tax cheaters
That presumably includes pitchers who suspect they've given up home runs to players who cheat and batters who suspect they're being outhit by cheaters.Chris Jenkins
… if the tests use the same questions day after day for months, they are much more vulnerable to cheaters who can memorize the questions.Douglas Frantz
b
: one who is sexually unfaithful
Her boyfriend turned out to be a cheater and a liar.
Although Bartolomeo, 36, has written another tale of infidelity, the unfaithful here is our narrator, Diana Campanella. A woman. All the cheaters in this book are women—and none of the men are evil.Valerie Franke
2
cheaters plural, US slang : eyeglasses, spectacles
"Joe and I blow in there to see if there's anything for us, and there's a tall guy in tortoiseshell cheaters sitting in Ike's office."P. G. Wodehouse
especially, in current use : eyeglasses used for reading or close work
I needed my cheaters to read the menu.
Despite considerable research efforts into this condition [presbyopia], becoming increasingly prevalent as the population enjoys greater longevity, no simple treatment beyond bifocals or reading glasses ("cheaters") exists. Terrence P. O'Brien

Examples of cheater in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But many major games have adopted custom anti-cheat systems now that cheaters are getting more sophisticated. Sean Hollister, The Verge, 2 Mar. 2024 Case in point: Her research at the University of Denver found that not all former cheaters repeated their behaviors in their next relationships. Jenna Ryu, SELF, 23 Feb. 2024 Plus, outright cheaters are constantly found on top of them anyway. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2024 Catlin had more interests in athlete safety and preserving fair competition than in exposing cheaters. Les Carpenter, Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2024 The PlayStation 5’s latest update blocks players from using the Cronus Zen — a device cheaters use to get an unfair advantage in first-person shooters and other games — as spotted by Call of Duty news site CharlieIntel. Emma Roth, The Verge, 24 Jan. 2024 Bungie Further Reading Bungie sues serial Destiny 2 cheater who threatened employees Just over a year ago, Bungie went to court to try to stop a serial Destiny 2 cheater who had evaded multiple account bans and started publicly threatening Bungie employees. Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 8 Sep. 2023 Some corporate cheaters have cranked up emissions only to later reduce them and claim credits for going greener. Jamey Keaten, Fortune, 12 Dec. 2023 He was mentioned by name multiple times in the Texas state legislature; the parents of other wrestlers called him a cheater; and several girls forfeited rather than face him. S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cheater.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of cheater was in 1606

Dictionary Entries Near cheater

Cite this Entry

“Cheater.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cheater. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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