"on the down-low" meaning in English

See on the down-low in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on the down-low.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} on the down-low, {{en-PP}} on the down-low
  1. (US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) In secret. Tags: US, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang
    Sense id: en-on_the_down-low-en-prep_phrase-RodFTUMj Categories (other): American English, English euphemisms, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 51 27 22 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 49 27 24 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 50 27 23
  2. (US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) Secretly sleeping with someone other than one's partner. Tags: US, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang
    Sense id: en-on_the_down-low-en-prep_phrase-D9dajLt5 Categories (other): American English, English euphemisms
  3. (African-American Vernacular, LGBTQ) (of a male) Publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with other men. Categories (topical): LGBTQ
    Sense id: en-on_the_down-low-en-prep_phrase-A8NG14Vg Categories (other): African-American Vernacular English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: covert, on the down low, on the DL, on the low

Alternative forms

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      "expansion": "on the down-low",
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on the down-low",
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  "pos": "prep_phrase",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'll tell you, but keep it on the down-low.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In secret."
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      "id": "en-on_the_down-low-en-prep_phrase-RodFTUMj",
      "links": [
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        "(US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) In secret."
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        "Secretly sleeping with someone other than one's partner."
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        "(US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) Secretly sleeping with someone other than one's partner."
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            "Human behaviour",
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            "All topics",
            "Reproduction",
            "Fundamental",
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            "Nature"
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      "glosses": [
        "(of a male) Publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with other men."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(African-American Vernacular, LGBTQ) (of a male) Publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with other men."
      ]
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    {
      "_dis1": "38 23 39",
      "word": "covert"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "38 23 39",
      "word": "on the down low"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "38 23 39",
      "word": "on the DL"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "38 23 39",
      "word": "on the low"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "down-low"
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  "word": "on the down-low"
}
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    "English prepositional phrases",
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      ],
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        "slang"
      ]
    },
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        "(of a male) Publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with other men."
      ],
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        ],
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          "heterosexual",
          "heterosexual"
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        "(African-American Vernacular, LGBTQ) (of a male) Publicly identifying as heterosexual but secretly having sex with other men."
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    {
      "word": "covert"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the down low"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the DL"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the low"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "down-low"
  ],
  "word": "on the down-low"
}

Download raw JSONL data for on the down-low meaning in English (2.0kB)

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  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: African-American Vernacular, LGBTQ",
  "path": [
    "on the down-low"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "prepositional phrase",
  "title": "on the down-low",
  "trace": ""
}

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: African-American Vernacular, LGBTQ",
  "path": [
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  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "prepositional phrase",
  "title": "on the down-low",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.