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.
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.
Syn: Deception; deceit; guile; craft; wile; sham; strife;
circumvention; stratagem; trick; imposition; cheat. See
{Deception}.