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Definition of cheap shot
1 : an act of deliberate roughness against a defenseless opponent especially in a contact sport
taking cheap shots at the quarterback
2 : a critical statement that takes unfair advantage of a known weakness of the target
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Other Words from cheap shot
cheap-shot \ ˈchēp-ˌshät 
\ transitive verb
\ transitive verbExamples of cheap shot in a Sentence
He took a cheap shot at the quarterback.
a cheap shot to the back of the head
The remark about his weight was a cheap shot.
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Recent Examples on the Web Unlike most linemen of the 1930s and ’40s, Fortmann was respectful to his opponents during an era when cheap shots happened on almost every play.
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Will Larkin, chicagotribune.com, "Ranking the 100 best Bears players ever: No. 13, Danny Fortmann," 23 Aug. 2019 Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ... • Aldon Smith’s comeback attempt with the Dallas Cowboys will be one of the compelling stories of the season, if there is a season.
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Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, "Pondering Aldon Smith’s comeback, a varsity vacuuming squad and other sports musings," 4 Apr. 2020 Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots from the bunker. .
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Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, "Alex Rodriguez batting cleanup in Trump’s ‘Dugout Cabinet’," 28 Mar. 2020 His top Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, has refined it into a post-modern name-calling style exhibited in limited fashion to voters who confront him with cheap shots.
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NBC News, "What the polls show for Biden and Sanders in Michigan and elsewhere," 10 Mar. 2020 There were many vicious hits on each side, but none of them were cheap shots.
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Mick Mccabe, Detroit Free Press, "North Farmington tops Farmington the Harrison way in rivalry that nearly boiled over," 20 Oct. 2019 Year Beef Cut to about a year later, when Paul took both a cheap shot and a moonshot in just a few tweets.
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Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "Rand Paul: Earth Is Fine! What We Should Really Do Is Terraform Mars," 22 Jan. 2020 If McAvoy, rattled by a T.J. Oshie cheap shot, were forced to sit, the logical AHL call up would be veteran Alex Petrovic, who signed on as an unrestricted free agent after a September camp invite.
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BostonGlobe.com, "■ They scored a lot, seven goals total, and rolled up an early advantage with four straight strikes in the opening 20:00. Getting the lead early and remaining in front became their trademark in October and most of November.," 27 Dec. 2019 But one moment that left us stunned was when Secretary Castro took a cheap shot at Joe.
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Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY, "Biden campaign calls Julian Castro's attack a 'cheap shot' as both campaign off Democratic debate feud," 13 Sep. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cheap shot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for cheap shot
The first known use of cheap shot was in 1971
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