low-rent

comparative lower-rent · superlative lowest-rent

1. derogatoryinformalLow-quality, trashy.

   Being called a "diner" may have once meant serving low-rent food, but today it's considered a compliment.

   2007, Barbara Brown Smith, Rise & Dine: Breakfast in Boston

   4 more examples

   You see what we're up against here. "Timecop," a low-rent "Terminator," is the kind of movie that is best not thought about at all, for that way madness lies.

   1994 September 16, Roger Ebert, “Timecop”, in Chicago Sunday Times, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2005

   Hollinghurst's debut novel, The Swimming Pool Library (1988), was lauded for its startling conflation of high literary style and low-rent sex, and presented an eye-opening trawl through the London gay scene, from private clubs to public toilets, in the laconic tone of a latter-day Henry James.

   2004 April 10, Alfred Hickling, “Review: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst”, in The Guardian

   That's a text book definition of low-rent hoochie mama if I ever saw it. Guarantee you she's got her tramp stamp across her hips.

   2005 August 11, Dave “Georgia Studebaker” Miller, “Re: Maybe I should have advertized^([sic]) Boomerang like this.....”, in alt.autos.studebaker (Usenet)

   Billboards with a pink wash (a visual pun on La Vie en Rose?) featured words like “chic!” and looked low rent too.

   2024 July 26, Arifa Akbar, “Paris Olympics opening ceremony review – soaring ambition deflated by patchy delivery”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: cruddy, low-grade, second-rate, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf · Antonyms: high-rent