Fraud, n.
Etymology: [F. fraude, L. fraus, fraudis; prob. akin to Skr. dh to injure, dhv 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.
1 more senses
Syn. -- Deception; deceit; guile; craft; wile; sham; strife; circumvention; stratagem; trick; imposition; cheat. See Deception.
Shades of meaning
A fraud is an act of deliberate deception with the design of securing something by taking unfair advantage of another. A deceit or deception may be designed merely to gain some end of one's own, with no intent of harming another; an imposition, to take some small advantage of another, or simply to make another ridiculous. An imposture is designed to obtain money, credit, or position to which one is not entitled, and may be practised by a street beggar or by the pretender to a throne. All action that is not honest is dishonesty, but the term dishonesty is generally applied in business, politics, etc., to deceitful practises which are not directly criminal. Fraud includes deceit, but deceit may not reach the gravity of fraud; a cheat is of the nature of fraud, but of a petty sort; a swindle is more serious than a cheat, involving larger values and more flagrant dishonesty. Fraud is commonly actionable at law; cheating and swindling are for the most part out of the reach of legal proceedings. Treachery is chiefly used of dishonesty in matters of friendship, social relations, government, or war; treachery may be more harmful than fraud, but is not so gross, and is not ordinarily open to legal redress. Treason is a specific form of treachery of a subject to the government to which he owes allegiance, and is definable and punishable at law. Compare artifice; deception.