Cheap

Definition: Cheap

Cheap

Adjective

1. Relatively low in price or charging low prices; "it would have been cheap at twice the price"; "inexpensive family restaurants".

2. Tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments".

3. (informal) of very poor quality.

4. Embarrassingly stingy.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "cheap" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references)

Tips from 1870

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Cheap

Cheapness

Verb: be cheap; Adjective: cost little; come down in price, fall in price.

Adjective: cheap; low, low priced; moderate, reasonable; inexpensive, unexpensive; well worth the money, worth the money; magnifique et pas cher; good at the price, cheap at the price; dirt cheap, dog cheap; cheap, cheap as dirt, cheap and nasty; catchpenny;discounted.

Contempt

Look down upon; hold cheap, hold in contempt, hold in disrespect; think nothing of, think small beer of; make light of; underestimate; esteem slightly, esteem of small or no account; take no account of, care nothing for; set no store by; not care a straw, sneeze at; (unimportance); set at naught, laugh in one's sleeve, laugh up one's sleeve, snap one;s fingers at, shrug one's shoulders, turn up one's nose at, pooh-pooh, "damn with faint praise"; whistle at, sneer at; curl up one's lip, toss the head, traiter de haut enbas; laugh at; (be disrespectful).

Unimportance

Poor, paltry, pitiful; contemptible; (contempt); sorry, mean, meager, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel, weedy, scurvy, putid, beggarly, worthless, twopennyhalfpenny, cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery; one-horse. not worth the pains, not worth while, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, not worth a curse, not worth a straw; Noun: beneath notice, unworthy of notice, beneath regard, unworthy of regard, beneath consideration, unworthy of consideration; de lana caprina; vain; (useless).

Worthlessness

Cheap, shoddy; slapdash.

Crosswords: Cheap

Irish (thought), Swedish (billig).

That sounds like a cheap novelette (The Third Man; writing credit: Graham Greene; Alexander Korda)

Don't worry about me. I'm Charles Foster Kane! I'm no cheap, crooked politician, trying to save himself from the consequences of his crimes (Citizen Kane; writing credit: Herman J. Mankiewicz ; Orson Welles)

I detest cheap sentiment (All About Eve; writing credit: Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

You're a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin' mug (On the Waterfront; writing credit: Malcolm Johnson; Budd Schulberg)

Plus I'm cheap. (Liar Liar; writing credit: Paul Guay; Stephen Mazur)

We keep a Marly cheap (Left & Right Featuring Method Man And Redman; performing artist: D'Angelo)

Run in they crib and at least leave with some little cheap stuff (Murder Murder (Remix) *; performing artist: Eminem)

I watch you drinkin' all that cheap red wine, Oh (Too Funky; performing artist: George Michael)

Was hurtin 'em in the home of the Terrapins; got it dirt cheap for them (Izzo (H.O.V.A.); performing artist: Jay-Z)

A smell of wine and cheap perfume (DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'; performing artist: Journey)

Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster (references; author: unknown)

Anybody who thinks talk is cheap never argued with a traffic cop. (references; author: unknown)

Sherman shops at cheap chop suey shops. (references; author: unknown)

Don't Play Us Cheap (1973)

Cheap at Half the Price (1972)

A Wolf in Cheap Clothing (1936)

Cheap Kisses (1924)

Their Cheap Vacation (1914)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Automotive Cheap Tricks & Special F/X (reference)

• Cheap Hotels (reference)

• Cheap Talk with the Frugal Friends: Over 600 Tips, Tricks, and Creative Ideas for Saving Money (reference)

• Sofasosexy: Turning A Cheap Sofa Into An Object Of Desire (reference)

• Student's Vegetarian Cookbook: Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Tasty Vegetarian Recipes (reference)

  (more book examples)

Periodicals

• Cheap Investor (reference)

• Cheap Tricks (reference)

  (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies

• Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (reference)

• The Cheap Detective (reference)

• WWE - Mick Foley - Hard Knocks & Cheap Pops (reference)

• Cheap Trick: Every Trick in the Book (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Cheap Thrills [EXTRA TRACKS] (reference)

• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

ASHERAH,shallow (200 m), cheap ($25,000) Navy submersible built in 1964. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP).

It's a cheap shot. : And the results save millions. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

The unfortunate "barb" who is left to the promiscuous friendships of the cheap boarding house. Credit: Library of Congress.

Her husband must feel pretty cheap, I should think, tagging along after her. Credit: Library of Congress.

Cheap clothing - The slaves of the "sweaters" / drawn by W.A. Rogers. Credit: Library of Congress.

Cheap false brick tarpaper-covered wooden house typical of subdivision sections in Franklin Township, Amwell Road, West New Brunswick near Derussey land, New Jersey. Credit: Library of Congress.

Cheap partly-built house lacking water and sewage, Lockland, Ohio. Credit: Library of Congress.

Washington, Yakima Valley, Toppenish. Cheap auto camp for migratory workers waiting for the opening of the hop season. Old fruit tramp (20378-C) lives in this camp. Credit: Library of Congress.

Honey Brook (vicinity) Pennsylvania. Cheap tin steamer used for cooking corned beef in home of Amish FSA (Farm Security Administration) client. Credit: Library of Congress.

Talk is cheap : the war is not over until all the GI's are brought home alive. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

He could be no judge, however, of the evil he was holding cheap.

Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

Fish was only cheap food for peasants

His breakfast varied from two or four sous, as eggs were cheap or dear

Their dull piety and the sickly smell of the cheap hairoil with which they had anointed their heads repelled him from the altar they prayed at.

His suit was of cheap gray hardcloth and so new that there were creases in the trousers

The modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

Some young people may use inhalants as a cheap, accessible substitute for alcohol. (references)

It was cheap to manufacture, easy to give, and didn’t cause problems for most people. (references)

Business

Customers dislike adaptations or cheap imitations. (references)

Soon, customers will be able to shop around for cheap power. (references)

Local firms are generally staffed by cheap South Asian workers. (references)

Children

Congo

Many of the street children beg or sell cheap or stolen goods to support themselves. (references)

Civil Liberties

Algeria

Advertising companies tend to provide significant amounts of advertising to publications with a strong anti-Islamist editorial line and to withhold advertising from newspapers on political grounds, even if such newspapers have large readerships or offer cheap advertising rates. (references)

Economic History

Moldova

Labor is relatively cheap in Moldova. (references)

Indigenous People

Congo

Many Pygmies, possibly including children, have been exploited as cheap labor and discriminated against in employment, education, and the health sector by Bantus; however, there was no information regarding the extent of the problems during the year. (references)

Trade

Luxembourg

The ISO 9000 registration process is not cheap, and market demand for registration varies across product and service sectors. (references)

Poland

Although the availability of banking services varies from one bank to another, commercial banks generally offer a variety of money transfer and cash management services, but they do not usually provide access to cheap credit or extensive personal banking services. (references)

Travel

Ukraine

City transport in Kyiv is cheap, but crowded and slow at times. (references)

Vietnam

Trains and buses in Vietnam have extensive routes and offer a cheap way to travel. (references)

Georgia

Within the capital there are numerous new and inexpensive taxis, and cheap 'marshrutka' minibuses. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "cheap": a cheap trip ♦ be cheap ♦ be dirt cheap ♦ be going cheap ♦ become cheap ♦ buy cheap junk ♦ buy smth. cheap ♦ cheap and nasty ♦ cheap as dirt ♦ cheap day return fare ♦ cheap fare ♦ cheap hotel ♦ cheap jack ♦ cheap junk ♦ cheap labor ♦ cheap labour ♦ cheap money ♦ cheap money policy ♦ cheap novel ♦ cheap rag ♦ cheap sensationalism ♦ cheap stuff ♦ cheap victory ♦ come off cheap ♦ dirt cheap ♦ Dog cheap ♦ feel cheap ♦ get off cheap ♦ get smth. on the cheap ♦ Good cheap ♦ hold cheap ♦ it's cheap ♦ on the cheap ♦ sell off cheap. Additional references.

Beginning with "cheap": cheap-and-cheerful, cheap-and-cheerfulness, cheap-bistro, cheap-feeling, cheap-haul, Cheap-jack, cheap-jade, Cheap-john, cheap-line article, cheap-line goods, cheap-looking, cheap-money, cheap-rate, cheap-skate, cheap-thrill, cheap-thrills, cheap-to-build, cheap-to-make.

Ending with "cheap": dirt-cheap, dog-cheap, investigations-cheap, manufacturer-cheap, none-too-cheap, not-cheap, paper-cheap, pile-'em-high-and-sell-'em-cheap, super-cheap, travel-on-the-cheap, ultra-cheap.

Containing "cheap": special-cheap-ish.

Afrikaans

goedkoop (inexpensive). (various references)

Albanian

me çmim të ulët (cheaply), lirë (cheaply, lira, lyre, pound), i pavlerë (bad, barren, base, catchpenny, chaffy, crummy, dud, expendable, fiddling, footling, frivolous, futile, jejune, measly, nugatory, paltry, peddling, tawdry, threepenny, trashy, vain, valueless, worthless), i lirë (at ease, available, brummagem, clear, disengaged, disposable, empty, exempt, fetterless, footloose, free, frugal, inexpensive, loose, native, off, off duty, off-hour, open, quit, scotfree, twopenny, unattached, unbound, uncostly, uninhibited, unoccupied, vacant), i kursyer (abstemious, abstinent, careful, close, economic, frugal, penurious, provident, skimpy, thrifty), i arritur lehtë, gjëra të lira. (various references)

Arabic 

‏يسير (cushy, incommodious), ‏منخفض القيمة, ‏هين (cushy, easy, effortless, facile, handy, light, royal, soft), ‏حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), ‏غير غال (moderate), ‏تنزيلا ت, ‏زهيد (paltry, piddling, poor, scanty, scrimpy, small, trivial), ‏رخيص (crummy, frugal, inexpensive, junk, low-priced, saleable, shoddy, sleazy, tinny, two bit), ‏ردئ النوع (flimsy, leaden, shabby, wretched), ‏بضاعة رخيصة, ‏بخس (low), ‏بثمن بخث. (various references)

Bulgarian 

незначителен (dinky, fiddling, fractional, frivolous, immaterial, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, inessential, inglorious, insignificant, least, little, mean, minor, minute, negligible, niggling, nominal, noteless, nugatory, obscure, one horse, outside, paltry, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, pygmy, rabbity, scrubby, slight, small, small time, subfusc, tenuous, third class, tiddly, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, unconsidered, unimportant), на сметка (inexpensive), евтино (cheaply), евтин (brummagem, cheesy, dime, gaudy, halfpenny, hand-me-down, inexpensive, jitney, light, meretricious, sleazy, tawdry, tinsel, trumpery, two bit, twopence colored, twopence coloured, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, uncostly), лесно (cheaply, easily, easy, facilely, readily, simply), леко (easy, gently, light, lightly, soft), повърхностен (airy, blanket, borax, cursory, dilettante, external, facile, flimsy, frothy, glib, lip-deep, outward, perfunctory, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, slick, subaerial, sublime, superficial, surface, terrain, trumpery, yeasty), долнопробен (hedge, seedy, shady, trashy). (various references)

Chinese 

粗劣 (Cheapness), 便 (advantageous, convenient, easy, handy, ordinary, plain, so, then, thus, to relieve oneself), 低廉 (inexpensive, low). (various references)

Czech

povrchní (airy, casual, desultory, dollish, facile, frivolous, lip-deep, perfunctory, scrappy, shallow, sketchy, skin deep, superficial), nevkusný (low, tasteless, tawdry, unsuitable), nekvalitní (of bad quality, of poor quality, poor quality, substandard), mizerný (abysmal, bad, bleeding, bum, crappy, crummy, dismal, foul, lousy, miserable, painful, paltry, rotten, stingy, tinpot, vile, wretched), levný (down-market, inexpensive, low, moderate), levnì (cheaply), lacino (cheaply), laciný (inexpensive, pinchbeck, tawdry, tinpot). (various references)

Danish

billig (inexpensive). (various references)

Dutch

goedkoop (cheaply, inexpensive). (various references)

Esperanto

malmultekosta (inexpensive), malkara (inexpensive), ĉipa (inexpensive). (various references)

Farsi 

پست (Abacinate, Abject, Common, Currish, Despicable, Earthborn, Humble, Infamous, Inferior, Lily, Little, Mail, Menial, Peevish, Poor, Runty, Ungenerous, Venal, Vile, Villain, Villainous, Vulgar, Wretch, Wretched), کم ارزش , جنس پست , ارزان (Cutrate, Inexpensive, Jitney). (various references)

Finnish

huokeahintainen, huokea (low), helppohintainen, helppo (easy, facile, low), halpahintainen (inexpensive), halpa (humble, inexpensive). (various references)

French

abordable. (various references)

Frisian

goedkeap (inexpensive). (various references)

German

billig (cheaply, fair, feeble, gimcrack, inexpensive, just, low, low-cost, meet, petty, proper, reasonable, righteous, shabby, tacky, tinny), minderwertig (base, gimcrack, inferior, low, low class, low quality, poor, poor quality, scraggy, shoddy, substandard, unwholesome). (various references)

Greek 

πρόστυχοσ (bitchy, caddish, coarse, common, hangdog, ignoble, lawbred, lewd, low, lowdown, low-minded, mean, ornery, raffish, ratty, scurrilous, scurvy, shabby, shoddy, sordid, vile, vulgar), φτηνόσ (inexpensive), φτηνός (inexpensive, naff), ευτελήσ (low, mean, shabby, soulless, tacky, worthless), ανειλικρινήσ (disingenuous, insincere, lip, mealymouthed, shifty). (various references)

Hebrew 

זול (cheapness, inexpensive, low, meretricious, shoddy). (various references)

Hungarian

olcsó (be on offer, budget-priced, inexpensive, jitney, rinky-dink, uncostly). (various references)

Icelandic

ódýr (inexpensive). (various references)

Indonesian

cepengan (not worth much), murah (inexpensive). (various references)

Irish

saor (free). (various references)

Italian

a buon mercato (inexpensive), economico (economic, economical, inexpensive, saving, thrifty). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

低廉 (inexpensive), 安い (gossipy, inexpensive, peaceful, quiet). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ぞくっぽい (vulgar, worldly-minded), チープ , かくやす (reasonable), あんちょく (easy, inexpensive, simple), やすい (easy, gossipy, inexpensive, peaceful, quiet, thoughtless), てがる (easy, informal, offhand, simple), ていれん (inexpensive). (various references)

Korean 

싸게 (Cheaply, inexpensively). (various references)

Malay

murah (inexpensive). (various references)

Manx

seyrailagh, neuphriosoil, neugheyr. (various references)

Norwegian

billig (inexpensive). (various references)

Papiamen

barata (inexpensive). (various references)

Pig Latin

eapchay.(various references)

Polish

tani (inexpensive). (various references)

Portuguese

barato (brummagem, cheaply, inexpensive, penny-a-line, pinchbeck, twopenny). (various references)

Romanian

ieftin (commonplace, fair, inexpensive, inexpensively, low, low-priced, modest, popular, reasonable, threepenny, trite, twopenny, worthless). (various references)

Russian 

дешевый (brummagem, crumby, dime, flashy, inexpensive, jitney, low-cost, threepenny, twopenny, uncostly). (various references)

Scottish

saor (a carpenter, carpenter, cheapen, deliver, easily, frank, free, gratuitous, redeem, rescue, save, set at liberty, unrestrained, wright). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

petparački (penny-a-line, shoddy), jeftin (low-cost, pennyworth, uncostly), škrta osoba. (various references)

Spanish

barato (dirt cheap, dog-cheap, inexpensive, nickel and dime, two bit). (various references)

Sranan

bunkopu (inexpensive). (various references)

Swahili

rahisi (easy, facile, inexpensive). (various references)

Swedish

billig (brummagem, economic, economical, fair, flashy, fustian, inexpensive, pulp, reasonable). (various references)

Tagalog

múra (inexpensive). (various references)

Tahitian

m‘m‘. (various references)

Thai

ถูก, คุณภาพต่ำ (low, low-grade, shoddy), ขี้เหนียว (tight). (various references)

Turkish

zahmetsiz (easy, effortless), ucuzlatmak (cheapen, depreciate, mark down, put down, reduce the price, roll back), ucuzlamak (become cheap, cheapen, come down, fall, go on sale), ucuza (at a discount, cheaply, dirt cheap, on the cheap), ucuz (cheaply, dime, dirt cheap, giveaway, inexpensive, keen, low, reach-me-down, trumpery, two bit), uğraşsız, kalitesiz (cheap and nasty, cheap jack, coarse, hand-me-down, inferior, of poor quality, offgrade, ornery, punk, ropy, shoddy, sleazy, third class, third rate), değersiz (despicable, footling, inferior, insignificant, jerkwater, measly, milk and water, no-account, nonvalent, non-valent, nugatory, of no worth, paltry, pitiable, punk, rubbishy, shoddy, tinpot, trashy, trivial, trumpery, two bit, valueless, vile, worthless), değerini düşürmek (alloy, attenuate, bemean, cheapen, damage, debase, depreciate, detract, devaluate, devalue), değeri düşmek (cheapen, depreciate, diminish in value, look down), bayağı (banal, camp, coarse, coarse grained, common, common as dirt, commonplace, corrupt, dastardly, debased, goodish, inferior, lewd, little, low camp, low class, no class, ordinary, plebeian, pretty, prosaic, quite, rather, run-off-the-mill, shoddy, tawdry, tolerably, vulgar), aciz (feckless, helpless, impotent, incapable, ineffectual, powerless, unable, weak). (various references)

Ukrainian

що не заслуговує поваги, що дістався легко, вигідна покупка (bargain), нічого не вартий (worthless), недорогий (hand-me-down, inexpensive), знецінений, підлий (babylonian, base, base-born, beggarly, caddish, caitiff, dastard, dastardly, dishonorable, dishonourable, grimy, hangdog, hoggish, ignoble, low down, mean-spirited, nefarious, niddering, picayune, rascal, reprobate, scabbed, scoundrel, scummy, scurvy, small, sneaking, sneaky, vile, yellow dog), дешевий (jitney, nickel and dime, pinchbeck, sixpenny, twopenny, utility), дешевина (bargain sale). (various references)

Vietnamese 

coi thường ai ăn ở không ra gì để cho người ta khinh, thấy khó ở khinh ai, rẻ tiền; đi tàu xe hạng ít tiền ít giá trị, rẻ tiền (brummagem, gimcrack, penny-a-line), rẻ mạt; hạ, rẻ (inexpensive), hạ giá (cheapen), $on the cheap$ rẻ. (various references)

Welsh

rhad (blessing, free, grace, inexpensive). (various references)

Yucatec

ma' ko'ohi' (inexpensive). (various references)

Zulu

-shibile (inexpensive). (various references)

insumptuosus, minima, minimae, minime, minimis, minimo, minimum, minimus, minor, minora, minore, minorem, minores, minori, minoribus, minoris, minus, parui, parva, parvae, parvam, parvas, parvi, parvis, parvo, parvos, parvum, parvus, pharue, vile, vilior, vilis. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "cheap": cheapen, cheapened, cheapening, cheapens, cheaper, cheapest, cheapie, cheapies, cheapish, cheapishly, cheapjack, cheapjacks, cheaply, cheapness, cheapnesses, cheapo, cheapos, cheaps, cheapskate, cheapskates. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Cheap" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ceap, Ceep, Cenap, cepa, chae, chael, chape, chea, cheab, chead, cheak, cheal, cheam, cheape, cheapy, chear, cheas, cheeow, Chehab, cheil, Chenab, chep, chepauk, Chepo, chesap, chewa, Chiah, chiao, Chiappa, chiop, Chiyah, choa, chua, chupa, cmea, creap, keap, sheap. (additional references)