lowdown

alternative low-down · alternative low down

1. uncountableinside information, the story or truth.

   here's the lowdown

   3 more examples

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

   to give somebody the lowdown

   Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home

   1985, “Can’t Get There From Here”, in Fables of the Reconstruction, performed by R.E.M.

   Synonyms: scoop, dirt, dope, straight dope, poop

2. uncountableA lowlife, a despicable person.

comparative more lowdown · superlative most lowdown · alternative low-down · alternative low down

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

   1 more example

   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.

comparative more lowdown · superlative most lowdown · alternative low-down · alternative low down

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