Word.ws English Dictionary

plays it cheap

plays it cheap is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it cheap.

Meaning of play it cheap

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

Questions about plays it cheap

What is plays it cheap the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays it cheap is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it cheap.

Words near plays it cheap in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays it cheap (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

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