In my research, I found there were a great number of times that the word cheap was used alongside another word as an idiom. According to Wikipedia) "an idiom is a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. An idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning." The OED defines the following two idioms in relation to cheap:
- cheap and nasty: of low price and bad quality; inexpensive but with the disadvantage of being unsuitable to one's purposes; hence cheap-and-nastiness.
- cheap and cheerful (colloq.): simple, cheap, and pleasant.
However, in my samples I found several others. Below is a list of the idioms I found in my samples and a brief description of my deduction of their meanings.
- good cheape and great plenty: I determined that in the use of this idiom from my 1550-1560 Early English Books Online Sample that cheap, or cheape as it appears here, is being referred synonymously with plenty.
- cheap and easie OR cheap and easy: In this first use the idiom, from my 1650-1650 Early English Books Online Sample, cheap may be in the proper idiom fashion synonymous to easy, or easiee as it appears here. However, later in the passage there is reference to cost and money. Therefore I concluded that in this instance the use of cheap could be referring to the hyprid OED definition, of "involving little trouble and hence of little worth", which combines an instance of effort (much like easy is referring to in this sample) and cost. From this conclusion I determined that cheap sometimes is used in the idiom construction, but not as expected with interchangeable terms. In another instance found in my 1800-1820 Nineteenth Century Collections Online Sample the context was more ambiguous and either of the two definitions could stand reason.
- cheapness and meanness: How this idiom is used from my 1715 Eighteenth Century Collection Online Sample cheap, or cheapness as it appears here, has a very clear meaning referring to the inexpensiveness of the "Plaister" being discussed; however, meanness could either be following the typical idiom construction also referring to the price or be a determination of the average value the "Plaister" being discussed can have to the purchaser at such a low cost.
- cheap and common: This is another instance when the use of cheap in the idiom construction made me question the intended definition. Found in my 1715 Eighteenth Century Collection Online Sample this use of cheap can either be referring to the meaning describing something that is easily obtained (relative to common) or as its own determination of affordability.