cheap shot

1. 1.

   an unnecessarily aggressive and unfair remark directed at a defenseless person

   Broadershot
2. 2.

   an illegal and unsportsmanlike act of unnecessary violence

   “he called a penalty on them when the lineman took a cheap shot at the quarterback”

   Broadershot

Questions about cheap shot

What does cheap shot mean?

cheap shot means "an unnecessarily aggressive and unfair remark directed at a defenseless person". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is cheap shot a common word?

cheap shot is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.