The roots are Latin. De means "from" and fraud means "to cheat", so defraud of to acquire "from cheating".

What is the meaning of the word defrauded?

: to deprive of something by deception or fraud trying to defraud the public Investors in the scheme were defrauded of their life savings.

What does it mean to defraud the court?

The Supreme Court has said that to defraud typically means to deprive someone of property “by dishonest methods or schemes,” and typically involves “the deprivation of something of value by trick, deceit, chicane, or overreaching.” Another common formulation characterizes fraud as conduct that violates the sense of “ ...