Meanings
verbhold cheap (third-person singular simple present holds cheap, present participle holding cheap, simple past and past participle held cheap)
present singular third person holds cheap · participle present holding cheap · participle past held cheap · past held cheap
- idiomatictransitiveTo have a low esteem for (someone or something); to hold in contempt; to look down upon.
We shall not always plant while others reap / The golden increment of bursting fruit, / Not always countenance, abject and mute / That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; […]
1927, Countee Cullen, “From the Dark Tower”, in Copper Sun, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, part 1 (Color); republished in James Weldon Johnson, editor, The Book of American Negro Poetry […], revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931, →OCLC, page 228
Translations
Russian ни в гро́ш не ста́вить
- ни в гро́ш не ста́вить (ni v gróš ne stávitʹ)to have a low esteem for (someone or something) — see also look down upon
Cite this entry
APA
hold cheap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hold%20cheap
MLA
“hold cheap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hold%20cheap. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hold cheap,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hold%20cheap.
Source: hold cheap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.