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

The problem is that years of lower Japanese interest rates have fueled the yen-carry trade: borrow cheap in yen and invest elsewhere in the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Between games of table tennis and cheap, hearty lunches, the group remembers a vibrant town, full of people and shops they wanted to go to.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

The high desert has seen a population explosion over the past few decades thanks to its relatively cheap housing compared to Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

She noted that Europe had long benefitted from "three pillars" -- a rules-based global order underpinned by US security guarantees, cheap energy and expanding global trade.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

My insides churned like I’d eaten cheap chocolate.

From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence

Massie argued that temporarily dumping cheaper foreign beef into the American market could lower prices without giving U.S. ranchers an incentive to raise more cattle.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

The advertising campaign for its new smart-access products around Amazon’s Prime Day in June was 10 times cheaper than a year earlier, in part because of AI tools, Zemmel said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Including Passivhaus measures in a building's initial design is much cheaper than trying to add them retrospectively.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Both numbers are Taalas’s own, and the cheaper one buys tokens from a compressed model.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

“How many cakes? The price of sugar is still high. How about apple bread instead? That’s cheaper to make.”

From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson

The most expensive purchase, she calculates, were the windows at £30,000, while one of the cheapest measures was making the whole house airtight, which cost £5,000.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Until someone does, the industry’s cheapest inference will be running on its least certain capital.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

The cheapest entryway to Ford today is the Maverick or small Bronco Sport SUV, which start at roughly $28,000 and $32,000, respectively, and lack the mass appeal of their predecessors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

The cheapest stations were charging just under $5 a gallon this week, while the most expensive ones were charging about $7.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

The ferry, everyone knows, is the city’s cheapest vacation.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

Related Words

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