Meanings
- humorousQuite expensive.
After breakfast, Shirley and Gordon walked down the street to a shopping mall to look at fancy clothes and high priced jewelry. "Cheap at half the price," Gordon observed. Shirley smiled.
2007, Gordon Hughes, Hard Drive!: As the Disc Turns, page 76 - Satisfactorily cheap.
After he'd convinced you you'd only got one leg – the left – he'd sell you a gross of right-footed shoes. "Cheap at half the price! A real bargain." Afterwards, you'd feel you'd been done a favour to, and obligingly walk off with a limp.
2001, Roy Holland, C. H. Muller, Flakes of Dark and Light: Tales from Southern Africa and Elsewhere, page 110
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Deliberate transformation of a street trader's cry, cheap at twice the price (informing customers that what he was selling would still be cheap even if it cost twice as much), into cheap at half the price which would imply that the price was excessive.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cheap at half the price. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheap%20at%20half%20the%20price
“cheap at half the price.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheap%20at%20half%20the%20price. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cheap at half the price,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cheap%20at%20half%20the%20price.
Source: cheap at half the price on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.