defraud Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb deprive of by deceit
    rook; scam; gip; nobble; goldbrick; con; short-change; mulct; gyp; bunco; victimize; hornswoggle; diddle; swindle.
    • He swindled me out of my inheritance
    • She defrauded the customers who trusted her
    • the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change

WordNet

De*fraud" transitive verb
Etymology
L. defraudare; de- + fraudare to cheat, fr. fraus, fraudis, fraud: cf. OF. defrauder. See Fraud.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Defrauded; present participle & verbal noun Defrauding
Definitions
  1. To deprive of some right, interest, or property, by a deceitful device; to withhold from wrongfully; to injure by embezzlement; to cheat; to overreach; as, to defraud a servant, or a creditor, or the state; -- with of before the thing taken or withheld.
    We have defrauded no man. 2 Cor. vii. 2.
    Churches seem injured and defrauded of their rights. Hooker.

Webster 1913