steal
n. countablen. something that is such a good price it feels like you are taking it for free. You use this when you find a great bargain.
n. an item acquired at a price significantly below its perceived value. Informal in register; often used to emphasize the extreme nature of a bargain.
At only ten dollars, this jacket is a total steal.
I found a vintage camera at the garage sale for five dollars, which was an absolute steal given its condition.
While the retail price is usually prohibitive, snagging the floor model at a seventy percent discount felt like a steal that justified the long drive to the warehouse.
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stelaną Proto-West Germanic *stelan Old English stelan Middle English stelen English steal Inherited from Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic stelan, from Proto-Germanic stelaną. Cognate with Bavarian stöhn (“to steal”), Dutch stelen (“to steal”), German, Low German stehlen (“to steal”), Luxembourgish stielen (“to steal”), Danish stjæle (“to steal”), Faroese stjala (“to steal”), Icelandic stela (“to steal”), Norwegian Bokmål stjele (“to steal”), Norwegian Nynorsk stela, stele (“to steal”), Swedish stjäla (“to steal”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌽 (stilan, “to steal”). For the meaning development compare with Russian красть (krastʹ, “to steal”) and Russian кра́сться (krástʹsja, “to stalk, to prowl, to slink”). etymology notes Proposed etymologies beyond Germanic are numerous and include Proto-Indo-European ster-: compare Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”) Proto-Indo-European stel(H)- (“to stretch”): compare Albanian pë/mbështjell (“I confuse, mess up, mix, wrap up”), Old Church Slavonic стєлѭ (steljǫ, “I spread out (bed, roof)”), Ancient Greek τηλία (tēlía, “playing table”) Proto-Indo-European tsel- (“to sneak”): compare Sanskrit त्सरति (tsárati, “creep, sneak up on”) and other forms under Pokorny 5. *sel- "schleichen, kriechen"
Commonly used with the indefinite article 'a' and often preceded by intensifiers like 'absolute' or 'total'.