Question: I understand that questions that could potentially be answered by using the dictionary are frowned upon however there are multiple words that I see for cheating, which have overlapping meanings because English isn't very precise.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PzyI9m.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PzyI9m.jpg)

I've included this picture mostly because this comes from a Russian-English Telegram channel and it doesn't appear to be right. In the video, the man is using the dog to read the newspaper and beneath that, it says, *обманывать*. *обманывать* to my [understanding](https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C) means to deceive someone through lies. Cheating also can be breaking rules in a game to gain an advantage which seems like *жульничать*.

In English, we may even call this a life-hack. Alternatively, it seems like I could use *изменять* as well. Is this correct?

Answer: 
I am not really sure what the "proper use of a dog" is, and how exactly it is improper to train it to hold the newspaper.

Russian has *лайфхак* which is a loanword from English.

Russian also has *смекалка* ("practical wit, ability to think outside the box and find unorthodox solutions to everyday problems by using available resources")

I would also note that it's not a common trope in Russian memes to provide fake dictionary articles, complete with pronunciation.

It's much more common to use the first letter of a word, similar to the way they do this in the children's books: *Л — лайфхак*, *С — смекалка* etc., as if the picture were an illustration of the word starting with this letter.
I'm surprised nobody mentionеd ["обдурить"](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B4%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C). Being closer in it's meaning to "обхитрить" and "обмануть", however it differs from a lie because in some cases it's just not about lying and, as such, in some cases it is a decent choice for translating cheating.

Other word I can think of - "наколоть"/"накалывать", like in - "наколоть систему" - wiktionary doesn't mention it but it has additional meaning "to trick someone/something".