[Vocabulary] Cheat on

[BallsOfSteel]

Hello.

Hey guys, can we use "cheat on" only in situations when one speaks about adultery or it is possible to say something like "The company cheated on its clients" ? When speaking about a company what preposition shall we use?

Thank you in advace.

 

[Rover_KE]

'Cheat on' is only used for unfaithfulness to a spouse or lover.

'The company cheated its clients' needs no preposition.

 

[duskflights]

While adultery is its usual meaning, "cheating on" is sometimes used colloquially to mean being unfaithful to any established relationship, such as "cheating on" one's pets by cuddling with someone else's. This is very casual, though, so I probably wouldn't use it in formal writing.

[Not a teacher, just very well-read.]

 

[Tarheel]

So I could cheat on my cat? (He wouldn't care.)

 

[emsr2d2]

(He wouldn't care.)

Are you sure? ;-)

 

[Barb_D]

I believe there was famous episode of a show I never watched in which the main character went to a hair stylist other than his usual one and referred to it as "cheating on his barber."

The the analogy is that you have such a "committed" relationship with the person who performs this service for you that using someone else is like being unfaithful to your spouse.

 

[Rainer1966]

Oh, thanks. This is a mistake I obviously made very often. I didn't know that "to cheat on" can only used for unfaithfulness to a spouse or lover. In one of my last essays I wrote: "I cheated on my father." And that seems to be wrong.

I hhink I won't make this mistake anymore. :-D

Rainer

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, and if you go to another ESL website you will be cheating on us.

;-)