Definition of "chicanery" [chi•can•er•y]

• Deception by trickery or sophistry. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This kind of chicanery is what gets you thrown in prison if a private business does it."
• "All I notice is that these experts in chicanery are vying for jobs at BP."
• "But the notion that Wall Street somehow has a monopoly on "disastrous chicanery" is laughable, as big corporate scandals from a few years ago -- Tyco, Adelphia, Enron, WorldCom -- make clear."