Etymology Inherited from Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).
1
Law The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
2
Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved or unlawful gain.
When success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto II:
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.2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
3
The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
to draw the proud King Ahab into fraud1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
Etymology Inherited from Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).