cheap shot

noun

1. a covert, unsportsmanlike, and illegal act of deliberate roughness, especially in football, often calculated to injure an opponent.

2. any mean or unsportsmanlike remark or action, especially one directed at a defenseless or vulnerable person.

Idioms and Phrases

An unfair or unsporting verbal attack, as in You called him an amateur? That's really taking a cheap shot. The term originated in sports, especially American football, where it signifies deliberate roughness against an unprepared opponent. [Slang; second half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

They were physical, but Watkins was not injured on a cheap shot.

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Yes, Trump animates his base with the ugly vitriol and cheap shots.

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Baker: Please donate somebody that consistently intimidates opponents into not taking cheap shots at good Kraken players.

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Old Kraken pal Martin Pospisil — he of ongoing cheap shots — avoided supplemental discipline after getting ejected again for leaving his feet on a dangerous check.

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“I don’t even go there because there were other plays in that game, too, from the other team,” Cronin said, apparently alluding to cheap shots.

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Related Words

• abuse 
• affront 
• blasphemy 
• contempt 
• disgrace 
• disrespect 
• indignity 
• invective 
• libel 
• outrage 
• put-down 
• scorn 
• shame 
• slander 
• slap 
• slight 
• snub 
• taunt