Word.ws English Dictionary

play it cheap

play it cheap verb: to be frugal or stingy.

Verb

play it cheap (third-person singular simple present plays it cheap, present participle playing it cheap, simple past and past participle played it cheap)

  1. (idiomatic, informal, uncommon) To be frugal or stingy.
    • With blind eagerness, judged by subsequent action and indifference, our Government seems to have essayed to play the part of philanthropist, guide, and friend, but to "play it cheap", as if phrases could alter facts, or high-sounds declarations could complete, in a moment, what centuries elsewhere...1885, John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen, Proceedings of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen, page 11
    • It was no less grateful to the British people in their honest desire to play the part of guide, philosopher, and friend to the people of Egypt, but to play it cheap.1892, Alfred Milner Milner (Viscount), England in Egypt, page 80

Examples of play it cheap in a sentence

  • No, he didn't play it cheap, but that didn't alter the fact that he was never going to let himself hurt Melodye.2008, Francine Craft, Designed for Passion, page 244:
  • Play it cheap if you can otherwise fold.2021, Ryan Sleeper, Professional Hold’Em Strategies, The Complete Collection for Becoming a Professional No-Limit Hold’Em Player:

Forms of play it cheap

third-person singular presentplays it cheap
present participleplaying it cheap
past participleplayed it cheap
pastplayed it cheap

Questions about play it cheap

What does play it cheap mean?
Play it cheap means to be frugal or stingy.
How do you use play it cheap in a sentence?
No, he didn't play it cheap, but that didn't alter the fact that he was never going to let himself hurt Melodye.
What part of speech is play it cheap?
Play it cheap is a verb.
What is the past tense of play it cheap?
The past tense of play it cheap is played it cheap.

Words near play it cheap in the dictionary

  1. play into
  2. play into someone's hand
  3. play into someone's hands
  4. play into the hand of
  5. play into the hands of
  6. play it cheap
  7. play it close to the hip
  8. play it cool
  9. play it for all it's worth
  10. play it pear-shaped
  11. play it safe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play it cheap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “play it cheap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_it_cheap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.