- low blow n. 1. Sports An illegal blow in boxing that lands below the
exponent's waist. 2. An unscrupulous attack; an insult.
- low comedy n. Comedy characterized by slapstick, burlesque, and horseplay.
- lowdown n. Slang The whole truth: gave us the lowdown on what happened at the
party.
- low-down or lowdown adj. 1. Despicable; base: a low-down coward. 2a. Gloomy;
depressed. b. Earthy; funky: a low-down blues; the low-down sound of a clarinet.
- lower1 also lour intr.v 1. To look angry, sullen, or threatening. 2. To appear
dark or threatening, as the sky. n. 1. A threatening, sullen, or angry look.
2. A dark and ominous look: the lower of thunderheads.
- lowery also loury adj. Overcast; threatening.
- low-pitched adj. 1. Low in tone or tonal range. 2. Having a moderate slope: a
low-pitched roof.
- low-rent adj. Informal 1. Having inexpensive rent: a low-rent apartment. 2. Of
low social status or moral character: "Steve B ... may play low-rent, amoral
types--hit men, weasels, snivelers--but ... he's more complicated than that"
(Richard Leiby). 3. Lacking taste or refinement: a low-rent television drama.
- low road n. Behavior or practice that is deceitful or immoral: took the low
road to victory on election night.
- low-ticket adj. Informal Fairly inexpensive: low-ticket merchandise.
- lubricious also lubricous adj. 1. Having a slippery or smooth quality. 2.
Shifty or tricky. 3a. Lewd; wanton. b. Sexually stimulating; salacious.
- Lucifer n. 1. The archangel cast from heaven for leading the revolt of the
angles; Satan. 2. The planet Venus in its appearance as the morning star. 3.
lucifer A friction match.
- Luddite n. 1. Any of a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816
rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such
machinery would diminish employment. 2. One who opposes technical or
technological change.
- lug1 n. 1. A handle or projection used as a hold or support. 2. A lug nut. 3.
Nautical A lugsail. 4. A projecting part of a larger piece that helps to
provide traction, as on a tire or the sole of a boot. 5. A copper or brass
fitting to which electrical wires can be soldered or otherwise connected. 6.
Slang A clumsy fool; a blockhead.
- luge n. 1. A racing sled for one or two people that is ridden with the rider
or riders lying supine. 2. A competition in which these sleds race against a
clock. --luge v. --luger n.
- lulu n. Slang A remarkable person, object, or idea.
- luminaria n. 1. A votive candle set into a small, decorative paper bag
weighted with sand and placed in a row with others along a walkway, driveway,
or rooftop as a holiday decoration. Also called farolito.
- luminism Also Luminism n. A style of 19th-century American painting concerned
especially with the precise, realistic rendering of atmospheric light and the
perceived effects of that light on depicted objects.
- lump2 tr.v. Informal To tolerate (what must be endured): like it or lump it.
- lumpenproletariat n. 1. The lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat.
Used originally in Marxist theory to describe those members of the
proletariat, especaily criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked
class consciousness
