CHEAP SHOT Definition & Meaning

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cheap shot

noun

a covert, unsportsmanlike, and illegal act of deliberate roughness, especially in football, often calculated to injure an opponent.
any mean or unsportsmanlike remark or action, especially one directed at a defenseless or vulnerable person.

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Idioms and Phrases

An unfair or unsporting verbal attack, as in You called him an amateur? That's really taking a cheap shot . The term originated in sports, especially American football, where it signifies deliberate roughness against an unprepared opponent. [ Slang ; second half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

They were physical, but Watkins was not injured on a cheap shot.

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Yes, Trump animates his base with the ugly vitriol and cheap shots.

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Baker: Please donate somebody that consistently intimidates opponents into not taking cheap shots at good Kraken players.

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Old Kraken pal Martin Pospisil — he of ongoing cheap shots — avoided supplemental discipline after getting ejected again for leaving his feet on a dangerous check.

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“I don’t even go there because there were other plays in that game, too, from the other team,” Cronin said, apparently alluding to cheap shots.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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