Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to go for a song

to go for a song

6.3
To be sold very cheaply for much less than it is worth
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : venderse por una ganga
  • Clean used cars with low kilometers go for a song in Japan.

Examples

  • Many beautiful paintings at the auction went for a song due to lack of bidders.

  • It's going for a song.

    The Road to Hong Kong (1962)

  • He... read about Tye Hall and it was going for a song.

    A Perfect Place (2008)

  • During the sale, old furniture was going for a song, attracting many bargain hunters.

  • The stylish dress was priced to go for a song, making it hard to resist.

How Cheap

to give away
233 2.0
to go for a song
  • Informal
6.3
to sell off
57 3.5
half-price
28 1.1

Surface Forms

go for a song infinitive
went for a song past
gone for a song past participle
going for a song present participle
goes for a song third person singular

Morphology

go + for + a + song

The meaning 'to be sold very cheaply' is idiomatic and cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'go' + 'for' + 'a' + 'song' because 'song' has no transparent semantic link to price or cheapness. The expression is a conventional, language-specific metaphor (with different equivalents in other languages), so a B1 learner who knows the words but hasn't encountered the idiom would not predict its meaning.

Etymology

Go for a song may come from the idea of doing work 'for a song' — that is, a performer accepting a song as a very small payment. That's why today go for a song means 'to be sold very cheaply'.