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Cheaters or Escheators

Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Black's Law Dictionary

Were officers appointed to look after the king's escheats, a duty which gave them great opportunities of fraud and oppression, and in consequence many complaints were made of their misconduct. Hence it scorns that a cheater came to signify a fraudulent person, and thence the verb to cheat was derived.

Wharton.