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Fine Dictionary

cheap

ʧip
WordNet
Saint Serapion sits here on a hill, wrapped in the sindon, a cloth of cheap cloth. Its nickname is derived from this garment. A book and a crucifix lie on the floor in front of him. Print from a series of 80 prints and a title print with hermits from the 2nd to the 6th century.
Saint Serapion sits here on a hill, wrapped in the sindon, a cloth of cheap cloth. Its nickname is derived from this garment. A book and a crucifix lie on the floor in front of him. Print from a series of 80 prints and a title print with hermits from the 2nd to the 6th century.
  1. (adj) cheap
    relatively low in price or charging low prices "it would have been cheap at twice the price","inexpensive family restaurants"
  2. (adj) cheap
    embarrassingly stingy
  3. (adj) cheap
    of very poor quality; flimsy
  4. (adj) cheap
    tastelessly showy "a flash car","a flashy ring","garish colors","a gaudy costume","loud sport shirts","a meretricious yet stylish book","tawdry ornaments"
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Interesting fact
Although explorers brought potatoes back from the New World in the early 1500s, Europeans were afraid to eat them for fear that the spuds would give them leprosy. It wasn't until Louis XVI, who was looking for a cheap food source for his starving subjects, served them at the royal table that people were convinced potatoes were safe to eat.
  1. Cheap
    chēp A bargain; a purchase; cheapness. "The sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."
  2. Cheap
    Cheaply.
  3. Cheap
    Having a low price in market; of small cost or price, as compared with the usual price or the real value. "Where there are a great sellers to a few buyers, there the thing to be sold will be cheap ."
  4. Cheap
    Of comparatively small value; common; mean. "You grow cheap in every subject's eye."
  5. Cheap
    To buy; to bargain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Interesting fact
More than 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from silkworm cocoons. For about 3,000 years, the Chinese kept this discovery a secret. Because poor people could not afford real silk, they tried to make other cloth look silky. Women would beat on cotton with sticks to soften the fibers. Then they rubbed it against a big stone to make it shiny. The shiny cotton was called "chintz." Because chintz was a cheaper copy of silk, calling something "chintzy" means it is cheap and not of good quality.
  1. cheap
    To trade; traffic; bargain; chaffer; ask the price of goods; cheapen goods.
  2. cheap
    To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.
  3. cheap
    To buy; purchase.
  4. cheap
    To sell.
  5. (n) cheap
    Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
  6. (n) cheap
    A market; a market-place: in this sense extant in several place-names, as Cheapside and Eastcheap in London, Chepstow, etc.
  7. (n) cheap
    Price.
  8. (n) cheap
    A low price; a bargain: especially in the phrases good cheap and great cheap (see below).
  9. (n) cheap
    Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply.
  10. (n) cheap
    In abundant supply; at a low price; cheap: used adjectively or adverbially. [Now simply cheap. See cheap, a.]
  11. (n) cheap
    literally, great or large market-trade, An abundant supply; cheapness.
  12. (n) cheap
    In abundant supply; at a low price; cheap.
  13. cheap
    Rated at a low price or cost; purchasable or obtainable at a low price or cost, either as compared with the usual price or cost, or with the real value, or, more vaguely, with the price of other things; relatively inexpensive.
  14. cheap
    Of small intrinsic value or esteem; common; commonplace; mean; costing little effort to obtain, practise, influence, etc.: as, to make one's self cheap.
  15. cheap
    Getting off cheaply, or without losing much (or so much as one deserves): as, to be cheap o′ t.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Interesting fact
Strawberry Pop Tarts may be a cheap and inexpensive source of incendiary devices. Toasters which fail to eject Pop Tarts cause the Pop Tarts to emit flames 10-18 inches in height.
  1. (adj) Cheap
    chēp low in price: of a place where prices are low, as 'a cheap market:' of a low price in relation to the value: easily obtained: of small value, or reckoned at such
Quotations
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor is any pleasure so lasting.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Sir Walter Raleigh
Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.
Sir Walter Raleigh
Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
Hosea Ballou
Abraham Cowley
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
Abraham Cowley
Mere words are cheap and plenty enough, but ideas that rouse and set multitudes thinking come as gold for the mines.
A. Owen Penny
Anybody who thinks talk is cheap should get some legal advice.
Franklin P. Jones
Idioms

Cheap as chips - (UK) If something is very inexpensive, it is as cheap as chips.

Cheap at half the price - If something's cheap at half the price, it's very cheap indeed.

Cheap shot - A cheap shot is an unprincipled criticism.

On the cheap - If you do something on the cheap, you spend as little as possible to do it.

Talk is cheap - It's easy to talk about something but harder to actually do it.

To be dog cheap - If something's dog cheap, it is very cheap indeed.

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary AS. ceáp, bargain, sale, price; akin to D. koop, purchase, G. kauf, Icel. kaup, bargain. Cf. Cheapen Chapman Chaffer Cope, v. i

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary Orig. good cheap, i.e. a good bargain; A.S. ceap, price, a bargain; A.S. céapian, Ice. kaupa, Ger. kaufen, to buy; Scot. coup—all borrowed from L. caupo, a huckster.

Usage in the news

I bought chicken drumsticks this week because they are cheap. omansday.com

Word spread that Lewiston had good schools, a low crime rate and cheap housing — and the Somalis began arriving in droves. pbs.org

Cheap Alternatives to TV, DSL , and Cell Service. pcworld.com

Duchamp , for example, says he penciled a mustache and beard onto a cheap reproduction of the Mona Lisa to create "L. H.O.O.Q". nytimes.com

BEFORE spending a week in Luxembourg early last spring, I knew the following things about the place: (1) It used to have dirt-cheap Icelandic Airways flights from New York, much loved in the 1950's by me and my hard-up college chums. nytimes.com

New technology being developed for launch in 2014 would provide cheap and indefinite stellar thrust. usnews.com

Cheap dishes made from clay that was fired at a low temperature scratch and chip more easily than their higher quality (and priced) counterparts. statesman.com

I should have known better than to buy cheap dishes. statesman.com

Ebenezer Scrooge sits at his desk, counting his money while employee Bob Cratchit sits freezing because his employer is too cheap to buy more coal for the fire. miningjournal.net

NJ teen invents cheap EKG that works over cell phones. nj.com

Microsoft offers cheap upgrades for 8 Pro. ashingtonpost.com

CHEAP EATS My first two girlfriends were boys. sfbg.com

Exxon Plans US Ethylene Plant to Make Use of Cheap Gas. businessweek.com

Evening Dress es, Evening Gown s, Evening Dress ,cheap Evening Dr. A forum for discussion of sports and sports collecting. tuffstuff.com

Evening Dresses,Evening Gowns,Evening Dress,cheap Evening Dr. A forum for discussion of sports and sports collecting. tuffstuff.com

Usage in scientific papers

Laboratory experiments can be cheap and safe, provide relatively repeatable conditions, and can limit the type and range of variations within variables and thus simplify analysis.
A review of wildland fire spread modelling, 1990-present 2: Empirical and quasi-empirical models

While RPCs are cheap to build, reliable to operate (with glass as resistive plates), their single particle detection efficiency decreases substantially with rates of a few 100 Hz/cm2.
CALICE Report to the Calorimeter R&D Review Panel

The desired notion of test coverage is cheap to obtain and scalable.
Exploring the Composition of Unit Test Suites

The general advantages of the radio technique lie in the fact that radio waves are comparatively easy to detect with cheap equipment.
Radio Detection of Particles from the Cosmos

For this reason advanced and cheap optical components are available to build such a laser.
Testing the Stability of the Fine Structure Constant in the Laboratory

Usage in literature

Cheap seed will be found cheap in all senses of the term. "Amateur Gardencraft" by Eben E. Rexford

Though I cannot prove the charge against him, his brilliancy always makes me suspect him of cheapness. "A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays" by Willa Cather

I am afraid of Bradbury and Evans's desire to force on the cheap issue of my books, or any of them, prematurely. "The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete" by John Forster

As you say, it would be cheap at any money. "The Letters of Charles Dickens" by Charles Dickens

The comparative cheapness and facility of carriage of the preservative medium. "Practical Taxidermy" by Montagu Browne

Food is cheap here if you know where to get it; fuel costs more than food. "Condemned as a Nihilist" by George Alfred Henty

Gude cheer and cheap gars mony haunt the house. "The Proverbs of Scotland" by Alexander Hislop

Printers like this paper, because it enables them to obtain brilliant impressions from blocks produced by cheap processes. "Bookbinding, and the Care of Books" by Douglas Cockerell

Nay, says the journal, 'more than any agency, it is the cheapness and abundance of our coal which have made us what we are. "The Crown of Wild Olive" by John Ruskin

Stocks should be bought when they are cheap. "Successful Stock Speculation" by John James Butler

Usage in poetry
All things are a flowing
Sage Heracleitus say;
But a tawdry cheapness
Shall outlast our days.
"E.P. Ode Pour L'election De Son Sepulchre" by Ezra Pound Author object (202)
And I should think he felt quite cheap
For voting the wrong side;
And when Aunt Kitty scolded him,
He just stood up and cried.
"The Deliverance" by Frances Ellen Watkins
So I’m caught in the end
And get home late at night
Tired and torn to shreds by dogs
Holding a cheap imitation in my hands.
"Paintings" by Marin Sorescu Author object (466)
With fearless eye and ringing cheer
They made that wild advance,
For life was cheap and glory dear,
Those bloody days in France.
"Langemark" by Abner Cosens
"Nay, fore God," then said the monk,
"Me reweth I came so near,
For better cheap I might have dined,
In Blyth or in Doncastere."
"Robin Hood" by Henry Morley Author object (291)
Yes, I say well—said words are cheap!
For action man was born!
What praise will my one talent reap?
What grapes are on my thorn?
"The Disciple" by George MacDonald Author object (244)