lowlife
Americannoun
-
lowlifes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lowlife
Explanation
A lowlife is a no-good bum or a criminal, someone who deserves contempt. A car thief and a cruel bully could both be described as lowlifes. Calling someone a lowlife is an insult — a lowlife has a terrible, mean or criminal reputation. You should probably save this word for the worst of the worst, like animal abusers and scam artists who steal money from elderly people. Lowlife started out as an adjective meaning "disreputable," and began to also mean "no-good person" in the early part of the 20th century.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Frank is a lowlife antihero for the ages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
“He is a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending, and obviously trying to ‘play the ref,’” Trump claimed.
From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2024
“My son Jonathan was a thousand times more of a man than this lowlife could ever even dream of being,” Justine Amerault said.
From Washington Times ● May 27, 2022
“American Buffalo” is a heist comedy about three small-time criminals hoping to steal a possibly valuable nickel, but its also a no-holds-barred portrait of lowlife desperation and greed.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 8, 2021
People call New York a cesspool, but New Yorkers would never knuckle under to intolerance and let some lowlife get away with drawing swastikas.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
In the words of Damon Runyon, the bard of gambling lowlifes, “Mr. Bert Bell does not get out of bed in time for daylight games.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
As is the case in these mysteries, the upstanding citizens are propped up by a whole lot of lowlifes, but few as fearsome as Scott Shepherd’s chilly construction manager, Allen Murphy.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2025
When “American Buffalo” first hit the stage, in Chicago in 1975, its portrait of lowlifes like Teach — two-bit grifters aping the realpolitik of American business — was a game changer.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
The plot hinges on a document coveted by some of the city’s biggest auto manufacturers, but the various lowlifes hired to steal it are, with one notable exception, happily ignorant of its contents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2021
Meanwhile Billington pere made merry with other non-Puritan lowlifes and haphazardly plotted against authority.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
