Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cheap shot n.

[SE cheap, in sense of both costing little effort, and being vulgar, in poor taste + shot n.1 (3a)]

1. (US) a wounding, sneering remark; thus cheap-shot artist, one who habitually makes such remarks.

[US]G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 42: That was a cheap shot. I apologize.
[US]A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 36: Sorry. Cheap shot.
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 432: I guess it looks like a cheap shot, the revelation, at this stage, that Richard is Guy’s brother.
[Scot]I. Rankin Let It Bleed 207: You called me ‘Derry’ – that was a cheap shot.
[UK]Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 July 9: A cheap shot, which I withdraw unreservedly.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

[US]N.Y. Times 29 May 20: The movie opened yesterday at the Paris Theater and the Criterion, for the English antiwar cheap-shot satire brigade.
[US]R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 26: A cheap-shot homo joke.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 291: I always figured Vincennes was a cheap-shot cop on the take somehow.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 78: He ran a cheap-shot number upside my face.

3. a surprise punch, usu. when inflicted for no reason other than causing pain or injury, also as v. (see cite 1974).

[US]R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 107: In the last exhibition game [...] a guy complained, said I hit him a cheap shot. I said ‘You motherfucker, you’re not that good, that I have to cheap-shot you’.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 86: The guy hit me when I wasn’t looking. Took a cheap shot and then he took off.
[US] M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] No, this was a good lookin’ guy. Solid, with a whole lotta muscle. Bastard took a cheap shot.
[US]C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 229: ‘Be prepared for a cheap shot. Then feel free to beat the shit out of him’.