cheap shot

cheap shot

1. A physical blow struck against someone who is unready or unprepared. If often applies to sports in which physical contact is involved. Duane just punched Jimbo in the head while his back was turned. What a cheap shot! The boxer took a cheap shot against his opponent before the round started, and the referee halted the match.
2. By extension, a mean or unfair criticism. I didn't appreciate that cheap shot you took at me at the party. You made me look foolish in front of our friends.
See also: cheap, shot
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

cheap shot

An unfair or unsporting verbal attack, as in You called him an amateur? That's really taking a cheap shot. The term originated in sports, especially American football, where it signifies deliberate roughness against an unprepared opponent. [Slang; second half of 1900s]
See also: cheap, shot
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a cheap shot

If you describe something critical that someone says as a cheap shot, you mean that it is unfair or unpleasant. It would be a cheap shot, of course, to say anything about his hair. The cartoon is a cheap shot that will draw a guilty chuckle from even the most sensitive reader.
See also: cheap, shot
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

cheap shot

n. a remark that takes advantage of someone else’s vulnerability. It’s easy to get a laugh with a cheap shot at cats.
See also: cheap, shot
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • a cheap shot
  • get physical
  • physical
  • rough someone up
  • rough up
  • knock-down drag-out
  • body shame
  • body shaming
  • beat (something) out of (someone or something)
  • enforcer
References in periodicals archive
It has become permissible -- even encouraged -- to take cheap shots, reduce complex problems to memes and turn human beings into caricatures.
Can't we just get along?
"It was a pretty cheap shot I thought," McCafferty said.
Gat blast 'a cheap shot' says boss Mac
Jenkins admits he expects some cheap shots to be flying around at Croke Park next weekend.
We're ready for the Irish cheap shots; INSIDE THE WALES TRAINING CAMP
I think this study is a cheap shot by the union to try to push for more city assessor jobs."
Cheap Shot! Industry slams prop- tax report
He found it necessary to take a cheap shot by suggesting it was reckless for Nader to tip the election to Bush.
Rothschild is wrong
* `If we see the chance of a cheap shot, an easy press release, to gain a point, we should NOT take it if we honestly think we couldn't have done better ourselves.
A timely note of idealism. (From The Editors' Desk)
Carter's new Cheap Shot release combines all of the best features at a great price.
The Right Release
I'm sure that I'm not the first to bring it to your attention, and I admit that it's a bit of a cheap shot, but, conscience notwithstanding, I couldn't resist.
Letters to the Editor
What does project is Schwabsky taking a cheap shot.
LETTERS
"It's kind of a cheap shot," David Craft, KTHV's promotions director, said of the clip.
Fiery Promo
Despite Gallo's cheap shot, operators of recently privatized roadways were quickly reassured that the government's grand plan was not aimed at constructing highways to compete with their concessions but rather fixing old, secondary roads.
The De La Rua Plan
"The glut-of-information idea is simply a primitive, misleading, cheap shot of neo-Luddites.
The other side of cyberspace
Despite the generally high level on which he proceeds, he invites some confusion by displaying a taste for terminological quibbling, and even for an occasional cheap shot. Thus he sneers, "Life was not the static, unchanging routine of some fabled 'organic society.' "I doubt that those who speak of an "organic society" intend the romantic reading Dusinberre implies.
Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Swamps
He added: "Our jobs are hard enough as managers without having a little chip at each other, especially a cheap shot like that."
Coleman blasts Wenger over 'cheap shot'
FIRED-UP Roy Hodgson last night laid bare his passion by revelling in a 'cheap shot' at the man who said England's stars didn't give a damn about their country.
SNEER WE GO; Hodgson delights in 'cheap shot' as England march on