- cheap
- [[t]tʃi͟ːp[/t]]
♦♦cheaper, cheapest1) ADJ-GRADED: v-link ADJ, ADJ n, v n ADJ Goods or services that are cheap cost less money than usual or than you expected.
I'm going to live off campus if I can find somewhere cheap enough...
Smoke detectors are cheap and easy to put up...
Running costs are coming down because of cheaper fuel...
They served breakfast all day and sold it cheap.
Ant:expensive, dearDerived words:cheapness N-UNCOUNTThe cheapness and simplicity of the design makes it ideal for our task.
2) ADJ: ADJ n If you describe goods as cheap, you mean they cost less money than similar products but their quality is poor.Don't resort to cheap copies; save up for the real thing.
...a tight suit made of some cheap material.
Syn:3) ADJ: ADJ n (disapproval) If you describe the cost of someone's work as cheap, you disapprove of the way people are taking advantage of a situation to pay someone less than they should for the work that they do....unscrupulous employers who treat children as a cheap source of labour.
4) ADJ: ADJ n (disapproval) If you describe someone's remarks or actions as cheap, you mean that they are unkindly or insincerely using a situation to benefit themselves or to harm someone else.These tests will inevitably be used by politicians to make cheap political points.
5) ADJ: usu v-link ADJ (disapproval) If you describe someone as cheap, you are criticizing them for being unwilling to spend money. [AM]Oh, please, Dad, just this once don't be cheap.
Syn:Ant:6) PHRASE: V inflects You use life is cheap or life has become cheap to refer to a situation in which nobody cares that large numbers of people are dying.We will end up living in a society where life is cheap.
7) PHRASE: PHR after v (disapproval) If someone does or buys something on the cheap, they spend less money than they should because they are more concerned with what it costs than with its quality. [INFORMAL]Most modern housing estates are terrible and inevitably done on the cheap.
English dictionary. 2008.
