lowdown meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

lowdown

noun

Etymology Compound adjective of low + down in the sense of "humble" recorded in the 1540s, in the sense of "vulgar, far down the social scale" in 1888. Recorded as a noun in 1915 in the slang sense of secret or inside information.

1

inside information, the story or truth.

All the reporters hoped to be the first to get the lowdown on the celebrity's marriage plans.
here's the lowdown

2 more examples

to give somebody the lowdown
Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home1985, “Can’t Get There From Here”, in Fables of the Reconstruction, performed by R.E.M.:

2

A lowlife, a despicable person.

lowdown

adj

Etymology Compound adjective of low + down in the sense of "humble" recorded in the 1540s, in the sense of "vulgar, far down the social scale" in 1888. Recorded as a noun in 1915 in the slang sense of secret or inside information.

1

Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful.

lowdown tactics

2

seedy, sketchy, disreputable

So there I was, in the front row of course (it was my reportorial duty), with a bunch of gay men and straight women. And we're all involved in a lowdown — but eminently "Safe" — celebration of the erotic possibilities of the male body.1988 August 20, Chris Reed, “The English 'Strip-tique'”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 11:
Some kinda way, he talked Aunt Fanny into running off with him that night. When they got as far as Kansas City, he was through with her. They stayed in some lowdown kinda hotel in the colored section there', and after that they were headed God knows where.1994, Ivan Webster, The Cares of the Day, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 28:

3

down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men.

lowdown

adv

Etymology Compound adjective of low + down in the sense of "humble" recorded in the 1540s, in the sense of "vulgar, far down the social scale" in 1888. Recorded as a noun in 1915 in the slang sense of secret or inside information.

1

Unfairly; dishonourably; in a deceitful or mean manner.

“I say, that’s playing it a bit low down,” I protested.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 151: