cheap shot
noun
Simple meaning
An illegal and unsportsmanlike act of unnecessary violence.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
cheepshahtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃipʃɑt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An illegal and unsportsmanlike act of unnecessary violence
A deliberate, unsportsmanlike, and potentially illegal act of aggression against an opponent.
by extension
A remark that unfairly disparages an obvious vulnerability of the target.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An illegal and unsportsmanlike act of unnecessary violence
Used this way, cheap shot is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.