pricey
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does pricey mean? Pricey describes something that is expensive or unreasonably expensive, as in Talya wanted to go on the world cruise, but the tickets were so pricey. Pricey is a highly subjective description, because everyone’s budget is different and everyone’s opinion about what an acceptable price is for a product or service varies. You’ll use pricey most often when you think the cost of something is much higher than you want to pay, whether or not a majority of people think that same item is pricey.You might also use pricey to describe something that is more expensive than others like it but that provides a higher value or quality in return. In this case, pricey would be an acceptable quality.Example: The hotel was a bit pricey, but we had a good time.
Other Word Forms
- priceyness noun
- pricily adverb
Etymology
Origin of pricey
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.
Buying a home is still pricey—but buyers have seen some mortgage rate relief in recent months.
From Barron's
Seattle then signed him to a pricey contract extension, which is easier done without Wilson’s salary eating up cap space.
That’s still too pricey for most in a country where millions scrape by on sporadic income from street vending, domestic work, construction and other iterations of the informal economy.
From Los Angeles Times
If it’s on the pricey side, note that in the chat.
From MarketWatch
Also true: The pricey Northeast and West continue to send more domestic migrants elsewhere than they gain.
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.
