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View synonyms for cheap

cheap

[ cheep ]

adjective

, cheap·er, cheap·est.
  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



adverb

  1. at a low price; at small cost:

    He is willing to sell cheap.

cheap

/ tʃiːp /

adjective

  1. costing relatively little; inexpensive; good value
  2. charging low prices

    a cheap hairdresser

  3. of poor quality; shoddy

    cheap and nasty

    cheap furniture

  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. cheap as chips
    See chip
  10. dirt cheap informal.
    extremely inexpensive
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. on the cheap informal.
    at a low cost
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adverb

  1. at very little cost
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈcheaply, adverb
  • ˈcheapness, noun
  • ˈcheapish, adjective
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Other Words From

  • cheapish adjective
  • cheapish·ly adverb
  • cheaply adverb
  • cheapness noun
  • over·cheap adjective
  • over·cheaply adverb
  • over·cheapness noun
  • un·cheaply adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of cheap1

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”; chapman
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Word History and Origins

Origin of cheap1

Old English ceap barter, bargain, price, property; related to Old Norse kaup bargain, Old High German kouf trade, Latin caupō innkeeper
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Idioms and Phrases

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, Informal. inexpensively; economically:

    She enjoys traveling on the cheap.

More idioms and phrases containing cheap

  • dirt cheap
  • on the cheap
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Synonym Study

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.
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Example Sentences

At the $99,900 price, it’s certainly not cheap—but it’s on-par with the entry-level Porsche Taycan, which starts just above $100,000 and goes way up from there.

The best cheap vest will fit comfortably and offer multiple heat zones and temperature adjustments.

Stratton Oakmont would buy certain stocks cheap and talk up their value to unsuspecting investors — the “pump.”

Best cheap all-in-one printer under $100It can be challenging to find a good all-in-one printer for under $100.

Ordinarily, “gold filled” jewelry is similar to gold-plated — a cheaper metal coated with a thick layer of gold.

In doing so he exposed the failure of other airlines in the region to see the huge pent-up demand for cheap travel.

Betrayal…you can hear it…betraying the thing he loves for a cheap bit of film publicity.

Riffing off the slogan “Now Everyone Can Fly,” the carrier offered no-frills flights that were both cheap and plentiful.

Paper and cloth are cheap, what people are paying for is the story.

Was Che anything more than a cheap karaoke of what he stood for?

Cheap as they are, they are a poorer speculation than even corner lots in a lithographic city of Nebraska or Oregon.

In 1205 wheat was worth 12 pence per bushel, which was cheap, as there had been some years of famine previous thereto.

Some cheap food was presented to the printer in the shape of potatoes, with which his windows were smashed.

In the early sixties a cheap edition appeared, and cheap editions were rare things then.

She was dressed in her brightest skirt and fairly shone with the abundance of cheap jewelry she wore.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Ch.E.cheap at twice the price