Meaning
Extremely inexpensive; remarkably cheap. Informal, with 'dirt' supplying the image of the least valuable thing imaginable. Hyphenated as dirt-cheap when used before a noun, and sometimes condescending when applied to goods of low quality. Informal; emphasizes a surprisingly low price, occasionally with a hint that cheapness reflects poor quality. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Dirt, a 15th-century word from Old Norse, gave English its cheapest imaginable substance, and 'dirt-cheap' in the sense 'as cheap as dirt' is documented from 1766, which is both the OED's earliest evidence (a source signed 'Janus, Jr.') and the date Etymonline gives. An older sibling phrase, 'dog cheap' meaning extremely cheap, is recorded from 1526 in the OED's entry for the noun 'dog', and older reference works suggested that phrase was itself a corruption of 'good cheap', a bargain, from the obsolete noun 'cheap' (trade, purchase) that survives in Cheapside. Whether 'dirt-cheap' grew out of 'dog cheap' by swapping the intensifier or was coined independently is not established by the dictionaries; both may simply belong to a wider pattern of hyperbolic 'X cheap' comparisons.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- cheap as dirt
- dog cheap
Usage Examples
- Solar panels cost a fortune a decade ago; today they're practically dirt cheap by comparison.
- She snapped up the vintage jackets because they were dirt cheap at the estate sale.
- Fuel is dirt cheap in some exporting countries, which does nothing to encourage conservation.