cheap

American  

[cheep] / tʃip /

adjective

• cheaper,
  comparative
• cheapest
  superlative

1. costing very little; relatively low in price; inexpensive.

   a cheap dress.

   Antonyms:

   expensive, dear, costly

2. costing little labor or trouble.

   Words are cheap.

3. charging low prices.

   a very cheap store.

4. of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy.

   cheap conduct; cheap workmanship.

   Synonyms:

   base, inferior, poor, low, paltry

5. embarrassed; sheepish.

   He felt cheap about his mistake.

6. obtainable at a low rate of interest.

   when money is cheap.

7. of decreased value or purchasing power, as currency depreciated due to inflation.

8. stingy; miserly.

   He's too cheap to buy his own brother a cup of coffee.

   Antonyms:

   charitable, generous

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adverb

1. at a low price; at small cost.

   He is willing to sell cheap.

idioms

1. cheap at twice the price, exceedingly inexpensive.

   I found this old chair for eight dollars—it would be cheap at twice the price.

2. on the cheap, inexpensively; economically.

   She enjoys traveling on the cheap.

cheap British  

/ tʃiːp /

adjective

1. costing relatively little; inexpensive; good value

2. charging low prices

   a cheap hairdresser

3. of poor quality; shoddy

   cheap furniture

   cheap and nasty

4. worth relatively little

   promises are cheap

5. not worthy of respect; vulgar

6. ashamed; embarrassed

   to feel cheap

7. stingy; miserly

8. informal mean; despicable

   a cheap liar

9. See chip

10. informal extremely inexpensive

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noun

1. informal at a low cost

adverb

1. at very little cost

cheap More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing cheap

• dirt cheap
• on the cheap

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Synonym Usage

Cheap, inexpensive agree in their suggestion of low cost. Cheap now usually suggests shoddiness, inferiority, showy imitation, complete unworthiness, and the like: a cheap kind of fur. Inexpensive emphasizes lowness of price (although more expensive than cheap ) and suggests that the value is fully equal to the cost: an inexpensive dress. It is often used as an evasion for the more specific cheap.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cheapness
  noun
• overcheapness
  noun
• cheapish
  adjective
• overcheap
  adjective
• cheapishly
  adverb
• cheaply
  adverb
• overcheaply
  adverb
• uncheaply
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• cheaper
  comparative
• cheapest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of cheap

First recorded before 900; Middle English cheep (short for phrases such as good cheep “cheap,” literally, “good bargain”), Old English cēap “bargain, market, trade”; cognate with German Kauf, Old Norse kaup; all from Latin caupō “innkeeper, tradesman”; see chapman

Explanation

Something cheap doesn't cost much money. But watch out, because cheap things are also often cheaply made. When prices are low, they're cheap: that's a good thing. However, this word is often an insult. Hitting someone who isn't looking is a cheap shot. Things that aren't very well made and use low-quality materials are cheap. When someone — especially a woman — is dressed in a trashy way, people say "You look cheap!" And if you have a stingy Uncle Scrooge in your family, you can call him cheap or even a cheapskate.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cheap cheaper cheapest

Trade Representative Jamieson Greer disputed that, saying the U.S. wanted to ensure cheap aluminum and steel, such as from China, didn’t enter the U.S. from Canada.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Another factor for residents is that the suburbs aren’t a cheap option.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

France has started imposing fees on fast fashion items which could reach almost €20 per garment by 2030, as the government tries to curb sales of cheap clothing sold by e-commerce sites.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

The company took a considerable blow in May of last year, when the de minimis exemption – which allowed it to ship cheap goods to the U.S. without paying customs – expired.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

It was one of those thin, cheap, neutral-colored folders people used in offices.

From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Investors have cheered the cuts, seeing them as a sign Volkswagen can cut costs to compete with cheaper Chinese rivals.

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

Kimi was one of a wave of Chinese labs that are open-weight, which means they are generally cheaper and allow for more customization than the closed-source models coming out of Anthropic and OpenAI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Trying a cheaper drug instead of a pricier one is called “step therapy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Hardware is not depreciating on schedule, and renting has stopped getting cheaper fast enough to matter.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026

And the East India tea, even after that tax was paid, would be better and cheaper than any the Americans ever had.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

Users on the free tier or the cheapest paid plan will not get access.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

Its shares now trade at less than 16 times forward free cash flow, by far the cheapest in and a third lower than the basket of defense primes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Ticket prices ranged from around $100 to almost $2,000, the cheapest of which sold out within hours.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

And the goal isn’t necessarily finding the cheapest place.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

Shopping around for the cheapest policy, a process that had been convoluted and time-consuming, was suddenly made simple.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• competitive
• economical
• low-cost
• low-priced
• reasonable