Meaning & use
rock bottom prices
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Meanings
nounpluralinformal
Prices that are the lowest they have ever been or the lowest possible for something.
Grammar: Used as a plural noun; it often follows verbs like hit, reach, or fall to.
Patterns
- hit rock bottom prices
- fall to rock bottom prices
- at rock bottom prices
After the sale started, the store's prices hit rock bottom prices on almost everything.
We bought our winter coats at rock bottom prices in July.
Falling demand pushed house prices to rock bottom prices in that region.
phrasebefore a nouninformal
Used before a noun to describe goods being sold at the lowest possible cost.
Grammar: Acts like an adjective in front of a noun, and the hyphens are normal in this position: rock-bottom prices.
Patterns
- rock-bottom prices on something
- offer rock-bottom prices
The airline advertised rock-bottom prices for flights to Spain.
They sell good furniture at rock-bottom prices because they buy directly from factories.
Common combinations
- hit rock bottom
- Sales hit rock bottom in January before slowly recovering.
- at rock-bottom prices
- You can find laptops at rock-bottom prices right after Christmas.
- offer rock-bottom prices
- The shop offers rock-bottom prices on last season's shoes.
- rock-bottom prices on something
- There are rock-bottom prices on all garden tools this week.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bargain prices
- Focuses on value for money rather than on how low the price is; a bargain price is cheap but not necessarily the lowest ever.
- knockdown prices
- Very similar and also informal, but it suggests the price was deliberately cut, often by a seller.
- dirt cheap
- An informal adjective meaning 'very cheap'; it describes the thing, not the price level, so say 'dirt-cheap tickets', not 'dirt cheap prices' in careful writing.
Opposites
Word family
- rock bottom noun
- The lowest possible level of something, as in 'prices reached rock bottom'.
- rock-bottom adjective
- Used before a noun to mean at the lowest level, as in 'a rock-bottom price'.
Commonly confused: rock bottom prices or bottom line?
rock bottom prices vs bottom line
The bottom line is the final profit or the most important point, not a low price; 'rock bottom prices' is only about cost.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'At' is the normal preposition with prices: at rock bottom prices. 'In', 'on' and 'by' do not fit this fixed expression about price levels.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rock bottom prices”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.