cheap (redirected from cheapness)

cheap and cheerful (British, informal)

costing little money but attractive, pleasant, or enjoyable. They specialize in cheap and cheerful package holidays to Spain and Portugal.

cheap and nasty (British & Australian)

costing little money and of bad quality. You know the sort of cheap and nasty clothes that are sold on market stalls.

See also: nasty

Cheap at half the price! (British & Australian, humorous)

something that you say when something is very expensive. 'That'll be £3.20 please.' 'What? For one bottle of beer! Cheap at half the price.'

See also: half, price

a cheap shot

a criticism of someone that is not fair. She dismissed his comments as a 'cheap shot', saying that he was only concerned to defend himself. Federal bureaucracy is the target for every cheap shot artist (= someone who likes criticizing other people) in America.

See also: shot

dirt cheap (informal)

extremely cheap. This may seem like a great deal of money but in advertising terms it is dirt cheap.

See also: dirt

life is cheap

if life is cheap somewhere, people's lives have little value so if they die it is not important. In the city, gunmen rule the streets and life is cheap.

See also: life

on the cheap

if you buy or do something on the cheap, you buy or do it for very little money, often with the result that it is of bad quality. The buildings would have been a whole lot better if they hadn't been built on the cheap.

pile it/them high and sell it/them cheap (mainly British)

to sell large amounts of something at cheap prices. The shops at the lower end of the clothing market have survived by piling it high and selling it cheap.

See also: high, pile, sell, them

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on the cheap

for not much money. In Paris you can eat on the cheap in some good Left Bank restaurants.