lowdown

Meaning

Noun

1. inside information, the story or truth.
2. A lowlife, a despicable person.

Adj

1. Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful.
2. seedy, sketchy, disreputable
3. down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men.

Synonyms

bitchy

blue

caddish

cheap

coarse

common

depressed

hangdog

ignoble

ins and outs

inside information

lewd

low

lowbred

low-minded

mean

ornery

raffish

ratty

scurrilous

scurvy

shabby

shoddy

sordid

vile

vulgar

inner workings

inside curtain

hidden circumstances

inside facts

undisclosed circumstances

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.