cheap

English Online Dictionary. What means cheap‎? What does cheap mean?

English

Alternative forms

• chap, chop (dialectal)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English cheep, chepe/chepen, chep, cheap/cheapien, chapien, from Old English cēap (“cattle, purchase, sale”), ċēapian (“to bargain, chaffer, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup (“trade, purchase”), *kaupōn (“to buy, trade”), from Proto-Germanic *kaupōną, *kaupijaną (“to buy, trade”), *kaupô (“inn-keeper, merchant”), from Latin caupō (“tradesman, innkeeper”). See also chapman. For sense evolution to "inexpensive," compare bargain or French bon marché.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃip/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: chēp, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃiːp/
• Rhymes: -iːp
• (in dialects with meet-meat merger) Homophone: cheep

Adjective

cheap (comparative cheaper, superlative cheapest)

1. Low or reduced in price.

   Synonyms: inexpensive; affordable; (attributive) bargain; good value; see also Thesaurus:expensive § Antonyms

   Antonyms: expensive, dear (chiefly Commonwealth English), costly, pricey; see also Thesaurus:expensive
2. Of poor quality.

   Synonyms: low-quality, shoddy

   Hyponyms: flimsy, tinny

   Coordinate terms: basic, simple; primitive, naive; utilitarian, unadorned; crude, rough, mean, rude

3. Of little worth.

   Synonym: unvaluable

   Antonyms: precious, valuable; invaluable, priceless

   Coordinate terms: valueless, worthless
4. (slang, of an action or tactic in a game of skill) Underhand or unfair.

   the cheap trick of hiding deadly lava under pushable blocks

5. (informal, chiefly derogatory) Stingy; mean; excessively frugal.

6. (finance) Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.

   Antonym: rich

7. (computing) Taking little of system time or resources.

Usage notes

• Because cheap is polysemically ambiguous, it is not always clear whether the intended meaning is inexpensive, poorly made, or both; apt word choice, with terms such as good value or shoddy, can clarify.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Cantonese: cheap (cip¹)
• → Ido: chipa
  • → Esperanto: ĉipa
• → Japanese: チープ (chīpu)
• → Malayalam: ചീപ്പ് (cīppŭ)
• → Maltese: ċip
• → Norwegian Bokmål: kjip
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: kjip, kip (pre-2005)
• →? Portuguese: (Brazil) xepa
• → Shona: -chipa
  • → Chichewa: -tchipa
• →⇒ Tagalog: tsipipay, chipipay
• → Xhosa: tshiphu

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Fighting Game Terms

Noun

cheap (countable and uncountable, plural cheaps)

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

See also

• on the cheap

Verb

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

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

Usage notes

• The use of cheap as a verb has been superseded by cheapen.

Derived terms

Adverb

cheap (comparative more cheap, superlative most cheap)

1. Cheaply.

   I bought this cheap in a junk shop.

   The pet shop has some budgerigars going cheap.

   • March 24 1658, John Milton, letter to Emeric Bigot

     I need not request you to purchase them as cheap as possible

Anagrams

• Peach, Pecha, chape, chapé, peach

Chinese

Etymology

From English cheap.

Pronunciation

Adjective

cheap

1. (Cantonese, of people) stingy; mean; excessively frugal
2. (Cantonese) cheap; low-priced; bearing poor quality

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /çapˠ/

Noun

cheap m

1. Lenited form of ceap.

Verb

cheap

1. past indicative analytic of ceap