1. The use of a dishonest method to deceive people; usually to illegally obtain money from them: The bank president used an advanced form of chicanery to hide his criminal activities.
2. Deception or trickery, especially by the clever manipulation of language in legal matters: The chicanery with which the con man attempted to snare his next victim impressed the local police who finally caught him.
3. A quibble or subterfuge used to trick, to deceive, or to evade: P.T. Barnum's level of chicanery induced many people to visit his exhibitions and when they were inside the exhibition of natural and artificial curiosities from every corner of the globe, he kept traffic moving through the tent with a sign that said, This way to the egress.

Since most of the visitors didn't know that it meant "exit", they would have had to pay another quarter to return to the exhibit if they wanted to see anything that they might have missed.

4. Etymology: borrowed from French chicanerie, "trickery, deception"; from Middle French chicanerie, from chicaner, "to quibble, to quarrel, to confuse with crafty argument".

Although this word did not originate from this cozen- unit, it was placed here because its meanings fit the contents of this group of entries.

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