Is it thoughts and words? Or does it have to be actions? Can it be a feeling? If it is thoughts and words and feelings, where is the line between just being friends and cheating? Does it have to go on for a certain amount of time? If it is just actions does it have to be sex. Or is holding hands and kissing cheating?


What is your definition of cheating?

Having sex when you already have a 'partner' and they don't approve of that person or you having sex with someone else.

Having feelings for someone is only human nature, acting on those feelings is what I consider to be cheating.

cheat (chēt) Pronunciation Key
v. cheat·ed, cheat·ing, cheats

v. tr.

To deceive by trickery; swindle: cheated customers by overcharging them for purchases.
To deprive by trickery; defraud: cheated them of their land.
To mislead; fool: illusions that cheat the eye.
To elude; escape: cheat death.

v. intr.

To act dishonestly; practice fraud.
To violate rules deliberately, as in a game: was accused of cheating at cards.
Informal To be sexually unfaithful: cheat on a spouse.
Baseball To position oneself closer to a certain area than is normal or expected: The shortstop cheated toward second base.

n.
An act of cheating; a fraud or swindle.
One who cheats; a swindler.
A computer application, password, or disallowed technique used to advance to a higher skill level in a computer video game.
Law Fraudulent acquisition of another's property.
Botany An annual European species of brome grass (Bromus secalinus) widely naturalized in temperate regions.

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I'm Squarepusher, and I approved this message.

Yeah, I'm someone else who doesn't believe in "emotional cheating". I think if you're with someone and absolutely besotted with someone else, to the point where your relationship with your partner suffers, that's something else.

I wouldn't lump it in with cheating because most people who cheat carnally aren't doing it for the same reasons - it's usually either a drunken mistake or done out of spite, rather than because you're madly in love with the person you cheat on.

To my mind, cheating is sleeping with someone else, without your partner's consent. It only counts as an open relationship if both parties are equally aware of and happy with the situation, so if you sleep with someone else just because you haven't made it official that you're being monogamous, that's a shitty thing to do.

But yeah, just thinking about it isn't cheating, and calling it "emotional cheating" is even sillier. People might want to cheat, but it's not because of emotions, unless boredom counts as an emotion.