at a cost

phrase

: by giving up something else
He had achieved fame, but at a cost; he'd lost many friends and no longer talked to anyone in his family.

Examples of at a cost in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The company envisions a fleet that could generate billions in annual revenue and reported that 675 people had reserved flights at a cost of $750,000 a ticket by the end of last year. — Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026 And in the Kansas Senate race, Republican transgender ads have aired 7,000 times at a cost of nearly $7 million. — ABC News, 28 Oct. 2026 The production was created with just nine people at a cost of just $8,000 per minute—less than the low-budget television animation sourced overseas at between $10,000 and $20,000 per minute, according to Forbes. — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 27 Oct. 2026 Nice to have options The latter benefits from higher energy density but at a cost. — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for at a cost

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Cite this Entry

“At a cost.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/at%20a%20cost. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

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