Smithfield bargain
noun1
Obsolete A bargain in which the buyer of something is taken advantage of; a rip-off.
2
Obsolete A marriage made for convenience, especially for financial reasons.
- VVhy, is it not provoking; vvhen I thought vve vvere coming to the prettieſt diſtreſs imaginable, to find myſelf made a mere Smithfield bargain of at laſt— […]1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 84: