FRAUD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fraud mean? 

• FRAUD (noun)
  The noun FRAUD has 3 senses:

1. intentional deception resulting in injury to another person

2. a person who makes deceitful pretenses

3. something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

  Familiarity information: FRAUD used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRAUD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intentional deception resulting in injury to another person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):

barratry ((maritime law) a fraudulent breach of duty by the master of a ship that injures the owner of the ship or its cargo; includes every breach of trust such as stealing or sinking or deserting the ship or embezzling the cargo)

identity theft (the co-option of another person's personal information (e.g., name, Social Security number, credit card number, passport) without that person's knowledge and the fraudulent use of such knowledge)

mail fraud (use of the mails to defraud someone)

election fraud (misrepresentation or alteration of the true results of an election)

constructive fraud; legal fraud (comprises all acts or omissions or concealments involving breach of equitable or legal duty or trust or confidence)

collateral fraud; extrinsic fraud (fraud that prevents a party from knowing their rights or from having a fair opportunity of presenting them at trial)

fraud in fact; positive fraud (actual deceit; concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent to cause injury to another)

fraud in the factum (fraud that arises from a disparity between the instrument intended to be executed and the instrument actually executed; e.g., leading someone to sign the wrong contract)

fraud in the inducement (fraud which intentionally causes a person to execute an instrument or make an agreement or render a judgment; e.g., misleading someone about the true facts)

intrinsic fraud (fraud (as by use of forged documents or false claims or perjury) that misleads a court or jury and induces a finding for the one perpetrating the fraud)

cheat; rig; swindle (the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who makes deceitful pretenses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer

Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):

name dropper (someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends)

ringer (a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

dupery; fraud; fraudulence; hoax; humbug; put-on

Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):

chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):

goldbrick (anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless)

 Context examples 

But if any fraud or treachery is practising against him, I hope that simple love and truth will be strong in the end.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There have been cases before now where trainers have made sure of great sums of money by laying against their own horses, through agents, and then preventing them from winning by fraud.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was inflamed by the intellectual pretence and fraud of those who sat in the high places.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Because he is not a fraud at all.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Health fraud involves selling drugs, devices, foods, or cosmetics that have not been proven effective.

(Health Fraud, Food and Drug Administration)

A private dance, without sitting down to supper, was pronounced an infamous fraud upon the rights of men and women; and Mrs. Weston must not speak of it again.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Their remoteness and unpunctuality, or their exorbitant charges and frauds, will be drawing forth bitter lamentations.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Perjury, oppression, subornation, fraud, pandarism, and the like infirmities, were among the most excusable arts they had to mention; and for these I gave, as it was reasonable, great allowance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be contemplated with suspicion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its object might be I could not imagine.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)