lowlife
Americannoun
noun
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.
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
I worried they’d see him as a lowlife rather than a man who had lost everything and who needed their help to get it back, that they would have other priorities.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2023
“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
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
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.
