cheap
Etymology

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.

Pronunciation Noun

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.
Adjective

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
Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

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.
Adverb

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



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