cheap
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
computing
engineering
finance
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
Etymology: As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaupōn, from Proto-Germanic *kaupōną, a verbal derivative of *kaupô (“trader”), from Latin caupō.
The adjective originated as a shortening of Middle and Early Modern English good cheap, literally “good purchase” (as in “that was good cheap”, i.e. “that was [a] good purchase”). Compare Dutch goedkoop, French bon marché.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots chepe (“to sell”), chape (“sale price”), North Frisian keap (“purchase”), West Frisian keap (“purchase, buy, acquisition”), Dutch koop (“buy, purchase, deal”), kopen (“to buy, purchase, shop”), Low German kopen (“to buy”), German Kauf (“trade, traffic, bargain, purchase, buy”), kaufen (“to buy”), Swedish köp (“bargain, purchase”), köpa (“to buy, purchase”), Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa (“to buy, purchase”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”); also borrowed as Finnish kauppa (“shop, trade”), Russian купить (kupitʹ, “to purchase”), Old Church Slavonic коупити (kupiti, “to purchase”), Bulgarian ку́пя (kúpja, “to purchase”), Serbo-Croatian купити (“to purchase”), Czech koupit (“to purchase”), Polish kupić (“to purchase”).
Inflected forms:
form: cheaper
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: cheapest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: chap
pos: adj
tags: alternative
dialectal
form: chop
pos: adj
tags: alternative
dialectal
form: ch3ap
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Low or reduced in price.
pos: adj
examples: Where there are many sellers and few purchases, land will be cheap.
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.
Datacasting bypasses the wired, terrestrial Internet and is a cheaper way to distribute software than pressing and mailing CDs.
The cheapest antiager around: a good moisturizer.
Such [rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
McDonald’s has been vocal about adding more chicken to its menu, which is generally cheaper than beef.
gloss: Of poor quality.
pos: adj
gloss: Of little worth.
pos: adj
examples: You grow cheap in every subject's eye.
gloss: Underhanded or unfair.
pos: adj
tags: slang
examples: the cheap trick of hiding deadly lava under pushable blocks
gloss: Stingy; mean; excessively frugal.
pos: adj
tags: derogatory
informal
examples: Insurance is expensive, but don't be so cheap that you risk losing your home because of a fire.
gloss: Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.
pos: adj
examples: The ETF is trading cheap to NAV right now; we can arb this by buying the ETF and selling the underlying constituents.
gloss: Taking little of system time or resources.
pos: adj
examples: the algorithm is cheap to compute
Synonyms: bargainous
brand X
budget
cheap
cheapie
cheapo
cheesy
competitive
economic
economical
el cheapo
inexpensive
low-cost
low-end
low-priced
nickel
sixpenny
tinhorn
two a penny
unexpensive
Antonyms: affordable
expensive
Related words: discount
dollar-store
bargain
Poundland
Tesco Value
value
Wish.com
economy
good value
value for money
attainable
econo-
cheap thing
low-quality
worthless
Derived words: all over one like a cheap suit
Chapman
cheap and cheerful
cheap and nasty
cheap-arse Tuesday
cheap as borscht
cheap as chips
cheapass
cheap at half the price
cheap at the price
cheap Charlie
cheap date
cheap drunk
cheapen
cheap fake
cheapie
cheapish
cheapjack
cheap John
cheap like borscht
cheaply
cheapness
cheapo
cheapoid
cheapquel
cheap seats
cheapshit
cheap-shot
cheap shot
cheap-skate
cheapskate
cheap skate
cheapstead
cheapster
cheap thrill
cheap trick
cheap tripper
dirt cheap
dirt-cheap
dog-cheap
el cheapo
fold like a cheap suit
fold like a cheap suitcase
fold like a cheap tent
for the cheap seats
go cheap
hold cheap
lie like a cheap rug
lie like a cheap watch
on the cheap
play it cheap
play to the cheap seats
supercheap
talk is cheap
ultracheap
Translations: