for a song
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Almost free; very cheap.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
‘ Yeah, I picked it up for a song about twelve years ago.
Since this shop has the reputation of being the best for designer clothes, its customers tend to pay more than at other branches — but still only a fraction of the retail price.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “for a song” mean?
Almost free; very cheap.
Is “for a song” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.