rip-off
/ˈrɪpɒf
/noun informal
1A fraud or swindle, especially something that is grossly overpriced: designer label clothes are just expensive rip-offs...
- The rip-offs can vary from interest overcharging to the failure to set off loan accounts against accounts which are in credit.
- The frequency of this consumer crusade by our guardians in Wapping has led most people to believe that these cheap bits of degradable plastic are nothing but a rip-off of the highest order.
- Home insurance (buildings and contents cover) and mortgage payment protection insurance (accident, sickness and unemployment cover) from mortgage lenders are rip-offs, too.
Synonyms
fraud, swindle, fraudulent scheme, confidence trick, mare's nest;
overcharging
informal con, con trick, scam, flimflam, gyp, kite
British informal ramp, twist, swizz, daylight robbery
North American informal rip, shakedown, hustle, grift, bunco, boondoggle
Australian informal rort
British archaic, informal do, flanker, have
1.1An inferior imitation of something: rip-offs of all the latest styles...
- He was first lionised by the press and then held unfairly responsible for the subsequent slew of inferior rip-offs by other directors.
- Then you can count on some no-name studio to produce rip-offs of those blockbusters.
- And it may make rip-off artists think twice before churning out knock-offs.
- placeless
- placeman
- placemanship
- place mat
- placement
- placement agency
- placement drill
- placement-drilled
- place money
- place name
- place-namer
- place-naming
- placeness
- placenta
- placental
- placental abruption
- Placentalia
- placentalian
- placentally
- placenta praevia
- placenta previa
- placentary
- placentation
- placentiferous
- placentitis