"lowdown" meaning in English

See lowdown in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more lowdown [comparative], most lowdown [superlative]
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. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|low|down}} low + down Head templates: {{en-adj}} lowdown (comparative more lowdown, superlative most lowdown)
  1. Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful.
    Sense id: en-lowdown-en-adj-J8x-3eaZ
  2. seedy, sketchy, disreputable
    Sense id: en-lowdown-en-adj-4q0eBmy2
  3. down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men.
    Sense id: en-lowdown-en-adj-RO7sSt-~
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: low-down

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. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|low|down}} low + down Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} lowdown (uncountable)
  1. inside information, the story or truth. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: scoop, dirt, dope, straight dope, poop Translations (the whole truth): 真相 (zhēnxiàng) (Chinese Mandarin), 內幕 (Chinese Mandarin), 内幕 (nèimù) (Chinese Mandarin), holá pravda [feminine] (Czech), historie [common-gender] (Danish), faktat (Finnish), paljastus (Finnish), tieto (Finnish), Fakten [plural] (German), Infos [plural] (German), Informationen [plural] (German), értesülés (Hungarian), füles (Hungarian), 真相 (shinsō) (alt: しんそう) (Japanese), 内幕 (alt: うちまく, uchimaku, ないまく, naimaku) (Japanese), revelação (Portuguese), подного́тная (podnogótnaja) [feminine] (Russian), подоплёка (podopljóka) [feminine] (Russian), içyüz (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-lowdown-en-noun-bkwW52ME Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Czech translations, Terms with Danish translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Japanese translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Turkish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 1 16 61 2 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 25 1 8 65 1 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 21 1 15 62 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 23 1 14 62 1 Disambiguation of Terms with Czech translations: 16 8 21 38 17 Disambiguation of Terms with Danish translations: 17 3 17 59 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 18 5 18 52 7 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 23 3 16 55 3 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 16 8 20 38 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Japanese translations: 24 2 13 60 1 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 17 9 19 52 2 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 16 8 20 39 17 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 24 2 13 60 1 Disambiguation of Terms with Turkish translations: 20 5 20 47 7 Disambiguation of 'the whole truth': 93 7
  2. A lowlife, a despicable person. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-lowdown-en-noun--pYA3kat
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: low-down

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "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.",
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        {
          "text": "All the reporters hoped to be the first to get the lowdown on the celebrity's marriage plans.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "here's the lowdown",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "to give somebody the lowdown",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1985, “Can’t Get There From Here”, in Fables of the Reconstruction, performed by R.E.M.:",
          "text": "Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "inside information, the story or truth."
      ],
      "id": "en-lowdown-en-noun-bkwW52ME",
      "links": [
        [
          "inside information",
          "inside information"
        ],
        [
          "story",
          "story"
        ],
        [
          "truth",
          "truth"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "scoop"
        },
        {
          "word": "dirt"
        },
        {
          "word": "dope"
        },
        {
          "word": "straight dope"
        },
        {
          "word": "poop"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zhēnxiàng",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "真相"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "內幕"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "nèimù",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "内幕"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "holá pravda"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "historie"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "faktat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "paljastus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "tieto"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Fakten"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Infos"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Informationen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "értesülés"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "füles"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "alt": "しんそう",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "shinsō",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "真相"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "alt": "うちまく, uchimaku, ないまく, naimaku",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "内幕"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "revelação"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "podnogótnaja",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "подного́тная"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "podopljóka",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "подоплёка"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "93 7",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "the whole truth",
          "word": "içyüz"
        }
      ]
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        "A lowlife, a despicable person."
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          "lowlife",
          "lowlife"
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      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "low-down"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lowdown"
}

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  "etymology_text": "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.",
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      "form": "more lowdown",
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        "comparative"
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      "form": "most lowdown",
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        "superlative"
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          "text": "lowdown tactics",
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        "Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful."
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      "id": "en-lowdown-en-adj-J8x-3eaZ",
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      "categories": [],
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        {
          "ref": "1988 August 20, Chris Reed, “The English 'Strip-tique'”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 11:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Ivan Webster, The Cares of the Day, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "seedy, sketchy, disreputable"
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      "id": "en-lowdown-en-adj-4q0eBmy2",
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          "seedy"
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          "disreputable",
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        ]
      ]
    },
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        "down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men."
      ],
      "id": "en-lowdown-en-adj-RO7sSt-~",
      "links": [
        [
          "down low",
          "down low"
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      ]
    }
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "low-down"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lowdown"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
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    "Terms with Danish translations",
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    "Terms with German translations",
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  "etymology_text": "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.",
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        {
          "text": "All the reporters hoped to be the first to get the lowdown on the celebrity's marriage plans.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "here's the lowdown",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "to give somebody the lowdown",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1985, “Can’t Get There From Here”, in Fables of the Reconstruction, performed by R.E.M.:",
          "text": "Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home",
          "type": "quote"
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      ],
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      "synonyms": [
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          "word": "scoop"
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        {
          "word": "dirt"
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        {
          "word": "dope"
        },
        {
          "word": "straight dope"
        },
        {
          "word": "poop"
        }
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        "A lowlife, a despicable person."
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          "lowlife",
          "lowlife"
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      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
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    {
      "word": "low-down"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zhēnxiàng",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "真相"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "內幕"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "nèimù",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "内幕"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "holá pravda"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "historie"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "faktat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "paljastus"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "tieto"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Fakten"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Infos"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Informationen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "értesülés"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "füles"
    },
    {
      "alt": "しんそう",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "shinsō",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "真相"
    },
    {
      "alt": "うちまく, uchimaku, ないまく, naimaku",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "内幕"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "revelação"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "podnogótnaja",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "подного́тная"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "podopljóka",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "подоплёка"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "the whole truth",
      "word": "içyüz"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lowdown"
}

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    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
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    "Terms with Danish translations",
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    "Terms with Hungarian translations",
    "Terms with Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
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  "etymology_text": "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.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "more lowdown",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
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    },
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      "form": "most lowdown",
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        "superlative"
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          "text": "lowdown tactics",
          "type": "example"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Unfair",
          "unfair"
        ],
        [
          "scoundrelly",
          "scoundrelly"
        ],
        [
          "shameful",
          "shameful"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1988 August 20, Chris Reed, “The English 'Strip-tique'”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 11:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Ivan Webster, The Cares of the Day, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "seedy, sketchy, disreputable"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "seedy",
          "seedy"
        ],
        [
          "sketchy",
          "sketchy"
        ],
        [
          "disreputable",
          "disreputable"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "down low",
          "down low"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "low-down"
    }
  ],
  "word": "lowdown"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lowdown meaning in English (6.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.