cheap

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Contents

English [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English cheep, chepe / chepen, chep, cheap / cheapien, chapien, from Old English cēap (“cattle, purchase, sale, traffic, business, bargain, gain, payment, value, price, goods, possessions, property, market, saleable commodities, trade”), ċēapian (“to bargain, chaffer, trade, to contract for the purchase or sale of, buy, bribe, endeavor to bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *kaupaz, *kaupô (“inn-keeper, merchant”), Proto-Germanic *kaupōnan, *kaupijanan (“to buy, purchase”), from Latin caupo (“tradesman, innkeeper, huckster”), cauponari (“to traffic, trade”), caupo (“tradesman, inn-keeper”), from Proto-Indo-European *kaup-, *ḱaup-, *kwap-, *ḱwap- (“merchant”), related to Ancient Greek κάπηλος (kápēlos, “huckster”). 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”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”), Finnish kauppa (“shop”).

Noun [edit]

cheap (plural cheaps)

  1. Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
  2. A market; marketplace.
  3. Price.
  4. A low price; a bargain.
    a good cheap
  5. Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply.

Adjective [edit]

cheap (comparative cheaper, superlative cheapest)

  1. Low and/or reduced in price.
    • John Locke
      Where there are a great sellers to a few buyers, there the thing to be sold will be cheap.
  2. Of poor quality.
  3. Of little worth.
    • Dryden
      You grow cheap in every subject's eye.
  4. (slang, of an action or tactic in a game of skill) underhand; dubious.
  5. (derogatory) frugal; stingy
    Insurance is expensive, but don't be so cheap that you risk losing your home because of a fire.
Synonyms [edit]
Antonyms [edit]
Related terms [edit]
terms derived from cheap
See also [edit]
Translations [edit]
low in price
reduced in price
of poor quality
of little worth
slang unfairly powerful
frugal, stingy
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb [edit]

cheap (third-person singular simple present cheaps, present participle cheaping, simple past and past participle cheaped)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To trade; traffic; bargain; chaffer; ask the price of goods; cheapen goods.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To buy; purchase.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To sell.

Usage notes [edit]

Use of cheap as a verb has been surpassed by cheapen.

Adverb [edit]

cheap (comparative more cheap, superlative most cheap)

  1. Cheaply.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Anagrams [edit]

Irish [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: [çapˠ]

Noun [edit]

cheap m

  1. Mutated form of ceap.

Verb [edit]

cheap m

  1. Mutated form of ceap.
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