Adjacent Words

Cheapen definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHEAPEN, v.t.
1. To attempt to buy; to ask the price of a commodity; to chaffer.
To shops in crowds the daggled females fly,
Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy.
2. To lessen value.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: lower the grade of something; reduce its worth [syn: degrade, cheapen]

Merriam Webster's

verb (cheapened; cheapening) Date: 1562 transitive verb 1. [obsolete English cheap to price, bid for] archaic a. to ask the price of b. to bid or bargain for 2. a. to make cheap in price or value b. to lower in general esteem c. to make tawdry, vulgar, or inferior intransitive verb to become cheap

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. & intr. make or become cheap or cheaper; depreciate, degrade.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cheapen Cheap"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cheapened; p. pr. & vb. n. Cheapening.] [OE. cheapien, chepen, to trade, buy, sell, AS. ce['a]pian; akin to D. koopen to buy, G. kaufen, Icel. kaupa, Goth. kaup[=o]n to trade. Cf. Chap to bargain.] 1. To ask the price of; to bid, bargain, or chaffer for. [Obsoles.] Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy. --Swift. 2. [Cf. Cheap, a.] To beat down the price of; to lessen the value of; to depreciate. --Pope. My proffered love has cheapened me. --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cheapens, cheapening, cheapened) If something cheapens a person or thing, it lowers their reputation or position. When America boycotted the Moscow Olympics it cheapened the medals won... Love is a word cheapened by overuse. VERB: V n, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Depreciate, reduce in value, lower the price of, lower in price. 2. Depreciate, belittle, reduce in esteem.

Moby Thesaurus

adulterate, alloy, bargain, beat down, bid, bid for, break, canker, chaffer, coarsen, confound, contaminate, corrupt, cut, cut prices, debase, debauch, decline, decry, defile, deflate, deflower, degenerate, degrade, denature, deprave, depreciate, desecrate, despoil, devaluate, devalue, dicker, distort, dive, downgrade, drive a bargain, fall, fall in price, give way, haggle, higgle, huckster, infect, jew down, lower, mark down, misuse, negotiate, nose-dive, outbid, pare, pervert, plummet, plunge, poison, pollute, prostitute, ravage, ravish, reduce, sag, shave, slash, slump, taint, trim, twist, ulcerate, underbid, undervalue, violate, vitiate, vulgarize, warp, write down, write off