deceit

plural deceits · alternative obsolete deceipt

1. countableuncountableAn act or practice intended to deceive; a trick.

   The whole conversation was merely a deceit.

   Synonyms: trick, fraud

2. countableuncountableAn act of deceiving someone.

   Upon his return he killed Eriphyle for her vanity and deceit of him and his father.

   1998, Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, page 125

   Synonyms: deception, trickery, deception, imposition, hype, dupery, fiddle, fetch

3. uncountableThe state of being deceitful or deceptive.

   His mouth is full of curſing, and deceit, and fraud : vnder his tongue is miſchiefe and vanitie.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 10:7

   1 more example

   [T]he tvvo commended rules by him [Aristotle] ſet down, vvhereby the axioms of Sciences are precepted to be made convertible, and vvhich the latter men have not vvithout elegancy ſurnamed; the one the rule of truth, becauſe it preventeth deceipt; the other the rule of prudence, becauſe it freeth election, are the ſame thing in ſpeculation and affirmation, vvhich vve novv obſerve.

   1603 (date written), [Francis] Bacon, “Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature; with the Annotations of Hermes Stella. Chapter XI. The Chapter Immediately Following the Inventary; Being the 11th in Order, a Part thereof.”, in Robert Stephens, compiler, edited by [John Lockyer], Letters and Remains of the Lord Chancellor Bacon, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, published 1734, →OCLC, page 411

   Synonyms: deceptiveness, deceitfulness, dissimulation, fraudulence, trickery, underhandedness

4. countableuncountablelawThe tort or fraudulent representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth and with intent to induce reliance on it; the plaintiff justifiably relies on the deception, to his injury.
5. collectivecountablerareuncountableA group of lapwings.

   Deceits of lapwings were preparing to migrate

   2025, Juhani Seppovaara, A Chess Master, page 16

   1 more example

   These birds belonged to a deceit of lapwings that had been displaced from their tract of grasslands and marshy grounds by a housing development.

   2024 July 3, “Life of the lapwing”, in Saturday Express