cheap
adj.adj. Something that is cheap costs very little money. You can also use it to describe something of poor quality, or a person who doesn't like to spend money.
adj. Costing little money or less than is usual or expected. It can also carry a pejorative sense, meaning of poor quality or, when describing a person, ungenerous with money.
These shoes are very cheap.
The toy was cheap and broke the first day we bought it.
His refusal to contribute to the gift was seen not as frugal but as a cheap gesture that disappointed everyone.
As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic kaupōn, from Proto-Germanic kaupōną, a verbal derivative of kaupô (“trader”), from Latin caupō. The adjective originated as a shortening of Middle and Early Modern English good cheap, literally “good purchase” (as in “that was good cheap”, i.e. “that was [a] good purchase”). Compare Dutch goedkoop, French bon marché. Cognates Cognate with Scots chepe (“to sell”), chape (“sale price”), North Frisian keap (“purchase”), West Frisian keap (“purchase, buy, acquisition”), Dutch koop (“buy, purchase, deal”), kopen (“to buy, purchase, shop”), Low German kopen (“to buy”), German Kauf (“trade, traffic, bargain, purchase, buy”), kaufen (“to buy”), Swedish köp (“bargain, purchase”), köpa (“to buy, purchase”), Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa (“to buy, purchase”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”); also borrowed as Finnish kauppa (“shop, trade”), Russian купить (kupitʹ, “to purchase”), Old Church Slavonic коупити (kupiti, “to purchase”), Bulgarian ку́пя (kúpja, “to purchase”), Serbo-Croatian купити (“to purchase”), Czech koupit (“to purchase”), Polish kupić (“to purchase”).
The adjective has two main senses: a neutral one (low price) and a negative one (poor quality or stingy). Context determines the meaning.