cheap at twice the price








adjective, cheap·er, cheap·est.

  1. costing very little; relatively low in price; inexpensive: a cheap dress.
  2. costing little labor or trouble: Words are cheap.
  3. charging low prices: a very cheap store.
  4. of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy: cheap conduct; cheap workmanship.
  5. embarrassed; sheepish: He felt cheap about his mistake.
  6. obtainable at a low rate of interest: when money is cheap.
  7. of decreased value or purchasing power, as currency depreciated due to inflation.
  8. stingy; miserly: He’s too cheap to buy his own brother a cup of coffee.

adverb

  1. at a low price; at small cost: He is willing to sell cheap.
Idioms
  1. cheap at twice the price, exceedingly inexpensive: I found this old chair for eight dollars—it would be cheap at twice the price.
  2. on the cheap, Informal. inexpensively; economically: She enjoys traveling on the cheap.

adjective

  1. costing relatively little; inexpensive; good value
  2. charging low pricesa cheap hairdresser
  3. of poor quality; shoddycheap furniture; cheap and nasty
  4. worth relatively littlepromises are cheap
  5. not worthy of respect; vulgar
  6. ashamed; embarrassedto feel cheap
  7. stingy; miserly
  8. informal mean; despicablea cheap liar
  9. cheap as chips See chip (def. 11)
  10. dirt cheap informal extremely inexpensive

noun

  1. on the cheap British informal at a low cost

adverb

  1. at very little cost
adj.

“low in price, that may be bought at small cost,” c.1500, ultimately from Old English noun ceap “traffic, a purchase,” from ceapian (v.) “trade,” probably from an early Germanic borrowing from Latin caupo “petty tradesman, huckster” (see chapman).

The sense evolution is from the noun meaning “a barter, a purchase” to “a purchase as rated by the buyer,” hence adjectival meaning “inexpensive,” the main modern sense, via Middle English phrases such as god chep “favorable bargain” (12c., a translation of French a bon marché).

Sense of “lightly esteemed, common” is from 1590s (cf. similar evolution of Latin vilis). The meaning “low in price” was represented in Old English by undeor, literally “un-dear” (but deop ceap, literally “deep cheap,” meant “high price”).

The word also was used in Old English for “market” (cf. ceapdæg “market day”), a sense surviving in place names Cheapside, East Cheap, etc. Related: Cheaply. Expression on the cheap is first attested 1888. Cheap shot originally was U.S. football jargon for a head-on tackle; extended sense “unfair hit” in politics, etc. is by 1970. German billig “cheap” is from Middle Low German billik, originally “fair, just,” with a sense evolution via billiger preis “fair price,” etc.

Very inexpensive, a good value for the money. For example, Pete got a $3,000 rebate on his new car—it was cheap at twice the price. For a synonym see dirt cheap.

In addition to the idioms beginning with cheap

  • cheap at twice the price
  • cheap shot
  • cheap skate

also see:

  • dirt cheap
  • on the cheap
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