cheap-jack
Americannoun
adjective
-
of or suitable for a cheap-jack; cheap or inferior.
-
without scruples or principles; underhanded.
using cheap-jack methods to evict tenants.
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of cheap-jack
First recorded in 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Then again, it might be another cheap-jack moment waiting to take you down.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2012
He saw a whole street of Florence, including the quarters of Donatello and Bronzino, torn down to make room for a cheap-jack row of shops devoted to "bijouterie and parfumerie."
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
It was reported that he had followed up his former misconduct by calling his father-in-law a liar, and that he had ordered a common tombstone from some cheap-jack at the East-end.
From An Unsocial Socialist by Shaw, Bernard
"Tout aux tavernes et aux fiells" Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack?
From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn
Then that jolly old Sir Walter Cholmondeliegh got introduced to us, and this fellow, with his cheap-jack wit, began to score off the old man in the way he does now.
From The Club of Queer Trades by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
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.