Cognate with Scots chepe, chape, Northern Frisian keap, Western Frisian keap, Dutch koop, kopen, Low German kopen, German Kauf, kaufen, Swedish köp, köpa, Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa, Icelandic kaup, kaupa; also borrowed as Finnish kauppa, Russian купить, Church Slavic коупити, Bulgarian ку́пя, Serbo-Croatian купити, Czech koupit, Polish kupić.

• (America) IPA: /t͡ʃip/
• (RP) enPR: chēp, IPA: /t͡ʃiːp/

cheap

1. (obsolete) Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
2. (obsolete) A market; marketplace.
3. Price.
4. (obsolete) A low price; a bargain.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

     The sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe.

5. Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply.

   The cheap of this book is incredible.

cheap (comparative cheaper, superlative cheapest)

1. Low or reduced in price.

   Synonyms: inexpensive, ;, affordable, ;, bargain, ;, good value, ;, see also Thesaurus:expensive § Antonyms

   Antonyms: expensive, dear, costly, pricey, Thesaurus:expensive

   • 1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC ↗:

     Where there are many sellers and few purchases, land will be cheap.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

2. Of poor quality.

   Synonyms: low-quality, shoddy

   Hyponyms: flimsy, tinny

   Coordinate terms: basic, simple; primitive, naive; utilitarian, unadorned; crude, rough, mean, rude

3. Of little worth.

   Synonyms: unvaluable

   Antonyms: precious, valuable, ;, invaluable, priceless

   Coordinate terms: valueless, worthless

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page number):

     You grow cheap in every subject's eye.

4. (slang, of an action or tactic in a game of skill) Underhand or unfair.

   the cheap trick of hiding deadly lava under pushable blocks

5. (informal, chiefly, derogatory) Stingy; mean; excessively frugal.

   Insurance is expensive, but don't be so cheap that you risk losing your home because of a fire.

6. (finance) Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.

   Antonyms: rich

   The ETF is trading cheap to NAV right now; we can arb this by buying the ETF and selling the underlying constituents.

7. (computing) Taking little of system time or resources.

   the algorithm is cheap to compute

• French: bon marché, pas cher, peu cher, économique
• German: billig, preiswert, preisgünstig
• Italian: economico, a buon mercato, poco costoso
• Portuguese: barato (low); barateado (reduced)
• Russian: дешёвый
• Spanish: barato, económico

• French: (colloquial) à deux balles, au rabais
• German: billig
• Italian: scadente
• Portuguese: barato
• Russian: низкопро́бный
• Spanish: barato, corriente

• French: modique
• Italian: scadente
• Portuguese: vil, reles
• Russian: дешёвый

• French: radin, séraphin (Quebec)
• German: geizig
• Russian: скупо́й

cheap (cheaps, present participle cheaping; simple past and past participle cheaped) (obsolete)

1. (intransitive) To trade; traffic; bargain; chaffer; ask the price of goods; cheapen goods.
2. (transitive) To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.
3. (transitive) To buy; purchase.
4. (transitive) To sell.

cheap

1. Cheaply.

   I bought this cheap in a junk shop.

   The pet shop has some budgerigars going cheap.

   • March 24 1658, John Milton, letter to Emeric Bigot

     I need not request you to purchase them as cheap as possible