price gouging

[ prahys gou-jing ]

noun

1. an act or instance of charging customers too high a price for goods or services, especially when demand is high and supplies are limited:

   The law prohibits price gouging during weather emergencies such as snowstorms.

Other Words From

• price gouge price-gouge verb (used with or without object)
• price goug·er noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of price gouging¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

The company banned ads related to price gouging of important pandemic-related supplies like masks and hand sanitizer.

From Search Engine Land

Regarding the pandemic, Google banned ads related to price gouging of important pandemic-related supplies like masks and hand sanitizer.

From Search Engine Land

Hotel prices in Texas are skyrocketing, but the reality is more complicated than price gouging.

From Vox

Over the past few days, local news outlets and social media users have noticed extremely high booking prices on hotel sites as demand spikes, which could be an indication of price gouging.

From Vox

We knew mask wearing was super important, but there were a lot of knockoff masks, misinformation, and price gouging happening.

From Fortune

But Uber's surges are not price gouging, as some have erroneously claimed.

From The Daily Beast

He protected coal miners on strike—and cracked down on price—gouging railroads.

From The Daily Beast