cheap-jack

[ cheep-jak ]

noun

1. a peddler, especially of inferior articles.

adjective

1. of or suitable for a cheap-jack; cheap or inferior.
2. without scruples or principles; underhanded:

   using cheap-jack methods to evict tenants.

cheap-jack

noun

1. a person who sells cheap and shoddy goods

adjective

1. shoddy or inferior

Word History and Origins

Origin of cheap-jack¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Word History and Origins

Origin of cheap-jack¹

C19: from cheap + Jack (name used to typify a person)

Example Sentences

The Internet is a souk of cheap-jack merchandise — banners, flags, hats, bumper stickers, T-shirts — aimed at poor saps suckered into Trump’s phony war.

From Washington Post

For the moment, this cheap-jack jeremiad will stand as a testament to a low, dishonest time in which the rule of law teetered on a terrible precipice.

From Washington Post

Then again, it might be another cheap-jack moment waiting to take you down.

From New York Times

Motor-buses of the most brutal sort have replaced the old carriages, Bond and Regent Streets are cheap-jack shows, everything is tumultuous and confused and has run down in quality.

From Project Gutenberg

As a friend of mine said, a cheap-jack would not give fourpence for anything left in P�ronne, and that is true, also, of Bapaume.

From Project Gutenberg