lowbrow

[ noun loh-brou; adjective loh-brou ]

noun

1. a person who is uninterested, uninvolved, or uneducated in intellectual activities or pursuits.

adjective

1. being a lowbrow:

   that lowbrow idiot.

2. of, relating to, or proper to a lowbrow:

   lowbrow entertainment.

lowbrow

/ ˈləʊˌbraʊ /

noun

1. a person who has uncultivated or nonintellectual tastes

adjective

1. of or characteristic of such a person

lowbrow

1. Unsophisticated, uncultured, vulgar: “My blind date took me to a mud-wrestling match. What a lowbrow evening!”

Derived Forms

• ˈlowˌbrowism, noun

Other Words From

• lowbrowism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of lowbrow¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10; low ¹ + brow

Example Sentences

Will the next few hours be both didactic and entertaining, providing us with ample high and lowbrow cocktail party fodder?

From The Daily Beast

We mixed highbrow and lowbrow, the celebrated and the not-yet-celebrated.

From The Daily Beast

As with Beck and Limbaugh, hordes of advertisers began pulling out over its edgy format and occasional lowbrow content.

From The Daily Beast

Highbrow meets lowbrow when the staff of NPR covers “Telephone.”

From The Daily Beast

As does, perhaps, the so-called Lowbrow School, of whom he is a persuasive representative.

From The Daily Beast

As I was saying when this lowbrow interrupted me, I was thinking that it might be a good idea to go nutting.

From Project Gutenberg

It was one of our chief delights to watch Frankling grind his teeth when some lowbrow—as he called them—drew her name.

From Project Gutenberg

When I came to I found myself in that room, with one lowbrow on guard.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• boorish
• churlish
• rude
• stupid
• vulgar