different between cheap vs tawdry

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /t??ip/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ch?p, IPA^(key): /t??i?p/
• Rhymes: -i?p
• Homophone: cheep

Alternative forms

• chap, chop (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English cheep, chepe/chepen, chep, cheap/cheapien, chapien, from Old English c?ap (“cattle, purchase, sale”), ??apian (“to bargain, chaffer, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup (“trade, purchase”), *kaup?n (“to buy, trade”), from Proto-Germanic *kaup?n?, *kaupijan? (“to buy, trade”), *kaupô (“inn-keeper, merchant”), from Latin caup? (“tradesman, innkeeper”). See also chapman.

Noun

cheap (countable and uncountable, plural cheaps)

1. (obsolete) Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
2. (obsolete) A market; marketplace.
3. Price.
4. (obsolete) A low price; a bargain.
5. Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Adjective

cheap (comparative cheaper, superlative cheapest)

1. Low and/or reduced in price.

   • Where there are many sellers and few purchases, land will be cheap.
2. Of poor quality.
3. Of little worth.
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.

   The ETF is trading cheap to NAV right now; we can arb this by buying the ETF and selling the underlying constituents.

Synonyms

• (low/reduced in price): bargain, inexpensive, frugal, no-frills, priced-off
• (of poor quality): flimsy

Antonyms

• (low or reduced in price): dear, expensive, high-priced, pricey
• (of low value): precious, valuable
• (financial markets): rich

Related terms

See also

• Appendix:Fighting Game Terms

Translations

Verb

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.

Derived terms

• cheap out

Usage notes

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

Adverb

cheap (comparative more cheap, superlative most cheap)

1. Cheaply.
   • 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

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /çap?/

Noun

cheap m

1. Lenited form of ceap.

Verb

cheap

1. past indicative analytic of ceap

English

Etymology

Shortened from tawdry lace; originally a corruption of Saint Audrey lace (from Old English Æþelþryþ). The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning “cheap” or “vulgar”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??d?i/

Noun

tawdry (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Tawdry lace. [17th c.]
2. (obsolete) Anything gaudy and cheap; pretentious finery. [17th–19th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 65:

     That fiddling, parading fellow (you know who I mean) made us wait for him two hours […] only for the sake of having a little more tawdry upon his housings […].

Adjective

tawdry (comparative tawdrier, superlative tawdriest)

1. (of clothing, appearance, etc.) Cheap and gaudy; showy.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gaudy

   • 1890, Knut Hamsen, Sult (Hunger), Part One, at p.34 (Canongate Books Ltd. 2016 paperback edition, Sverre Lyngstad 1996 translation):

     This wasn't really a room for me; the green curtains before the windows were rather tawdry, and there was anything but an abundance of nails on the walls for hanging one's wardrobe.
2. (of character, behavior, situations, etc.) Unseemly, base, shameful.

   Synonym: sordid

Translations

Further reading

• tawdry at OneLook Dictionary Search