deception

deception 1 Deception, fraud, double-dealing, trickery, chicane, chicanery mean the act or practice of, or the means used by, one who deliberately deceives in order to accomplish his ends.

Deception may or may not imply blameworthiness, for it may be used not only of cheating, swindling, and tricking but also of many arts or games in which the object is illusion or mystification

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he is incapable of deception

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there is, as the conjurers say, no deception about this tale— Kipling

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magicians are adepts in deception

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Deception also may be used for the state of being deceived

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fall into deception

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he is surely greedy of delusion, and will hardly avoid deception— Browne

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Fraud, on the other hand, except in casual use, always implies guilt, often criminality, in act or practice. Distinctively, it usually suggests the perversion of the truth for the sake of persuading someone to surrender some valuable possession or a legal right

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the elder brother gained control of the property by fraud

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he will never stoop to fraud, no matter how much he desires to get rich

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The term may suggest an act or practice involving concealment of truth, violation of trust and confidence, or nonperformance of contracted acts by which one (as an agent, an attorney, an executor, an employer, or an employee) gains an advantage over another to the injury of the latter

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according to one legal decision "silence where necessity requires speech may sometimes constitute fraud"

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I think that obtaining money by fraud may be made a crime as well as murder or theft; that a false repre-sentation, expressed or implied at the time of making a contract of labor, that one intends to perform it and thereby obtaining an advance, may be declared a case of fraudulently obtaining money— Justice Holmes

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Double-dealing usually implies duplicity in character and in actions, for it frequently suggests an act that in its essence is contrary to one's professed attitude

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one does not always believe them . . . they often say one thing and mean another, so that we may fairly accuse them of double-dealing— Jernigan

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The term may imply secret treating with each of two opposed persons or groups as though one were friendly to that person or group and inimical to the other

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Saville ... by his double-dealing with the King and the Scots, proved himself a political traitor— D'Israeli

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Trickery implies acts or practices that are intended to dupe or befool others; it often implies sharp practice or actual dishonesty

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we rely not upon management or trickery, but upon our own hearts and hands— Jowett

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they held that the basest trickery or deceit was not dishonorable if directed against a foe— Amer. Guide Series: R. I.

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Chicane and chicanery imply petty or paltry trickery and often subterfuge especially in legal proceedings

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to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane— Burke

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many scenes of London intrigues and complex chicanery— De Quincey

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making a tremendous fight, chiefly by chicane—whooping for peace while preparing for war, playing mob fear against mob fear— Mencken

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Analogous words: *deceit, duplicity, dissimulation, cunning, guile: cheating, cozening, defrauding, overreaching (see CHEAT): duping, gulling, hoaxing, hoodwinking, bamboozling, befooling (see DUPE)

2 *imposture, cheat, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit, deceit

Analogous words: illusion, *delusion, hallucination, mirage