Meanings
alternative for a song and a dance
- idiomaticFor a very low price; very cheaply.
They remembered then that they could have bought for a song canvases which now were worth large sums.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 48, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC3 more examples
[T]he contents of aircraft that once commanded prices up to $148m are now being sold off for a song after being torn apart in Gloucestershire's aviation charnel house.
2009 December 11, “Jet Cemetery: Where Airplanes Go to Die”, in BusinessweekIn his senior year, he had run across an old '66 Chevy Super Sport headed for the junkyard, bought it for a song, and overhauled it with his dad's help, turning it into the big red muscle car it was back in its day.
2011, Kat Martin, A Song for My Mother, Vanguard Press,, →ISBN, page 200He bought it for a song in 1984 compared with what his fellow financiers were spending on tonier Park and Fifth Avenues.
2013 August 16, Robin Finn, “A Former Madoff Penthouse Goes Back on the Market”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbfor a relatively small amount of money
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Dutch voor een habbekrats
- voor een habbekratsvery cheaply
Finnish pilkkahintaan
- pilkkahintaanvery cheaply
French pour trois fois rien, pour une bouchée de pain
- pour trois fois rienvery cheaply
- pour une bouchée de painvery cheaply
German für einen Apfel und ein Ei
- für einen Apfel und ein Eivery cheaply
Greek τζάμπα, φθηνά
- τζάμπα (tzámpa)very cheaply
- φθηνά (fthiná)very cheaply
Polish za bezcen, za grosze
- za bezcenvery cheaply
- za groszevery cheaply
- za półdarmovery cheaply
Russian за бесценок
- за бесценок (za bescenok)very cheaply
Spanish de balde
- de baldevery cheaply
Cite this entry
for a song. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/for%20a%20song
“for a song.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/for%20a%20song. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “for a song,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/for%20a%20song.
Source: for a song on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.