cheap shot

plural cheap shots · alternative cheap-shot · alternative cheapshot

1. A deliberate, unsportsmanlike, and potentially illegal act of aggression against an opponent.

   Attacking a goalie trying to make a save is a total cheap shot, I think.

2. broadlyA remark that unfairly disparages an obvious vulnerability of the target.

   School bullies always take cheap shots at kids with glasses.

   2 more examples

   It's a charge Rubin breezily makes while dredging up the fact that, years ago, Clinton got cheated on, itself a cheap shot that is irrelevant to the controversy at hand.

   2012 October 16, Conor Friedersdorf, “Jennifer Rubin Takes a Cheap Shot at Hillary Clinton”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2013

   He got right to it with an opening jab against “old ideas,” and then a direct slap, asking Biden: “Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?” Um, no. It was a big backfire, a cheap shot that fell to the floor.

   2019 September 13, Timothy Egan, “It Will Take More Than Cheap Shots to Knock Off Biden”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020

   Synonyms: potshot, low blow