cheap shot
Americannoun
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a covert, unsportsmanlike, and illegal act of deliberate roughness, especially in football, often calculated to injure an opponent.
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any mean or unsportsmanlike remark or action, especially one directed at a defenseless or vulnerable person.
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.
He was all but invisible until, frustrated, he felled Spanish keeper Unai Simón with a cheap shot in the final minutes, drawing a well-deserved yellow card.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Indeed, one might ask whether everyone who is presuming that Smith did not follow department procedure is taking their own cheap shot.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2024
“They don’t have that in the back of their mind that they need to go out and take care of somebody after they cheap shot somebody.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
In response to the comments, Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru's MS for Ceredigion and the Senedd's Llywydd said it was "right" for the first minister go, calling Mr Davey's comments a "cheap shot".
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2022
“Natalie doesn’t like it either. She doesn’t like it one bit,” I say, although I know this is a cheap shot.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
