fraud
See also: frauð
English
Etymology
From Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /fɹɔːd/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) enPR: frôd, IPA(key): /fɹɔd/
- (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American) enPR: frŏd, IPA(key): /fɹɑd/
Audio (Mid-Atlantic) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔːd
Noun
fraud (countable and uncountable, plural frauds)
- (law) The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
- Synonyms: swindle, scam, deceit, grift
- Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain.
- 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 228744960, canto II:
- When success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
- But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
- The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
- A person who performs any such trick.
- Synonyms: faker, fraudster, imposter, trickster; see also Thesaurus:deceiver
- (obsolete) A trap or snare.
- 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398:
- to draw the proud King Ahab into fraud
-
Derived terms
- 419 fraud
- affinity fraud
- carousel fraud
- click fraud
- constructive fraud
- defraud
- e-fraud
- electoral fraud
- frauditor
- fraud squad
- fraudulence
- fraudulent
- fraudulently
- fraudulentness
- insurance fraud
- mail fraud
- missing trader fraud
- pious fraud
- return fraud
- romance fraud
- wire fraud
Translations
an act of deception
|
assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end
|
one who performs fraud
|
Verb
fraud (third-person singular simple present frauds, present participle frauding, simple past and past participle frauded)
- (obsolete) To defraud
Translations
defraud — see defraud
See also
- embezzlement
- false billing
- false advertising
- forgery
- identity theft
- predatory lending
- quackery
- usury
- white-collar crime
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
fraud f
- (pre-1938) alternative form of frau