Pronunciations (11)
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/ˈləʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈlo/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/ˈlou/
Pronunciation notes
- Wales
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/ˈlaː/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
- dialectal
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/ˈloʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- US
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/ˈloʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
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[ˈloː]
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
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/ləʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/loʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- US
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ləʊ
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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loʊ
Pronunciation notes
- US
Adjective
Situated close to, or even below, the ground or another normal reference plane; not high or lofty.
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Examples
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standing on low ground
in a low valley, ringed by low hills
More examples (2)
a low wall a low shelf
Narrative friezes in low relief were characteristic of Ionic architecture.
Situated close to, or even below, the ground or another normal reference plane; not high or lofty. Pertaining to (or, especially of a language: spoken in) in an area which is at a lesser elevation, closer to sea level (especially near the sea), than other regions.
- Examples
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the low countries
Low German
Situated close to, or even below, the ground or another normal reference plane; not high or lofty. Below the batter's knees.
Usage- of a ball
- Examples
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the pitch (or: the ball) was low
Of less than normal height or upward extent or growth, or of greater than normal depth or recession; below the average or normal level from which elevation is measured.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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a low bow
a low tide
More examples (5)
the Mississippi is unusually low right now
It is a little low hearb […]
The men are well-proportioned, rather low than tall, have a brown complexion, and reserved countenance.
"Now you mention her, I do remember the young lady," said Mrs. Grantly; "a dark girl, very low, and without much figure. She seemed to me to keep very much in the background."
Just a month ago, data showed Antarctica would set a record this year for lowest sea-ice extent — the area of ocean covered by sea ice around the continent.
Of less than normal height or upward extent or growth, or of greater than normal depth or recession; below the average or normal level from which elevation is measured. Low-cut.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Again, observe the unmeaningness of the low neck fashion. Our mothers wore low dresses and bare arms all day long; they knew if their shoulders and arms were beautiful they would look as well by daylight as by candlelight; […]
Why do girls wear low dresses?
Not high in status, esteem, or rank, dignity, or quality. (Compare vulgar.)
- Examples
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low birth
low rank
More examples (7)
the low officials of the bureaucracy
low-quality fabric
playing low tricks on them
a person of low mind
Now that was low even for you!
Therefore they must have been common in the 16th century also among the folk first of all not as a high festival food but rather as a low festival and Sunday food, if our experience proves accurate.
Low-Sunday, is the Sunday after Easter, and is so call'd, because it is a low Festival in Comparison of that Day whereon Christ arose from Death to Life again.
Humble, meek, not haughty.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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God loves an humble soul. It is not our high birth, but our low hearts God delights in.
Disparaging; assigning little value or excellence.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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She had a low opinion of cats. He took a low view of dogs.
The humble soul has low thoughts of his own person; as David, 'I am a worm, and no man.'
Being a nadir, a bottom.
- Examples
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the low point in her career
Virginia, for example, reached such a low point in her junior year that she briefly considered suicide [...]
Depressed in mood, dejected, sad.
- Examples
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low spirits
As low as I felt, at least I didn't have Hunding's [miserable] job.
Lacking health or vitality, strength or vivacity; feeble; weak.
- Examples
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a low pulse
made (or: laid) low by sickness
Lacking health or vitality, strength or vivacity; feeble; weak. Having few hit points remaining; damaged.
Dead. (Compare lay low.)
- Synonyms
- Examples
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And wilt thou weep when I am low?
[L]et the mournful martial music blow; / The last great Englishman is low.
Small, not high (in amount or quantity, value, force, energy, etc).
- Examples
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More examples (1)
My credit union charges a low interest rate. Jogging during a whiteout, with such low temperatures and low visibility, is dangerous. The store sold bread at low prices, and milk at even lower prices. The contractors gave a low estimate of the costs. low cholesterol a low voltage wire a low number
Unfortunately, low winds were the rule over the local waters and this craft was no better, if as good, as ordinary sailboats under such conditions.
More examples (1)
The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
Small, not high (in amount or quantity, value, force, energy, etc). Having a small or comparatively smaller concentration of (a substance, which is often but not always linked by "in" when predicative).
- Examples
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diets low in vitamin A
made from low-carbon steel
Small, not high (in amount or quantity, value, force, energy, etc). Depleted, or nearing deletion; lacking in supply.
- Examples
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running low on cash
When silica is in low supply other classes of algae dominate the phytoplankton composition.
Simple in complexity or development.
Usage- especially
- in biology
- Examples
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low protozoan animals, low cryptogamic plants, and other low organisms
In the case of languages spoken by very low races, like the Puris and the Tasmanians, the difficulty of deciding such a point must be very great.
Favoring simplicity (see e.g. low church, Low Tory).
Usage- in several set phrases
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Among them there was none more low, more pious, more sincere, or more given to interference. To teach Mr. Worth his duty as a parish clergyman was evidently a necessity to such a bishop.
[…] and give a judgment against not only Denison, but the Church's doctrine; and that, it having once been given, we shall not get it reversed; and that the Church of England will seem to be committed to Low doctrine, which […]
Being near the equator.
Usage- in several set phrases
- Examples
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the low northern latitudes
Grave in pitch, due to being produced by relatively slow vibrations (wave oscillations); flat.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The note was too low for her to sing.
Generally, European men have lower voices than their Indian counterparts.
Quiet; soft; not loud.
- Examples
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They spoke in low voices so I would not hear what they were saying.
Why would you want to play heavy metal at such a low volume?
More examples (1)
Speak low if you speak love.
Made with a relatively large opening between the tongue and the palate; made with (part of) the tongue positioned low in the mouth, relative to the palate.
Lesser in value than other cards, denominations, suits, etc.
- Examples
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a low card
Not rich or seasoned; offering the minimum of nutritional requirements; plain, simple.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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The Physicians ordered a low diet, and cooling ptisans in great abundance.
Designed for a slow (or the slowest) speed.
Usage- of an automobile
- Examples
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low gear
Noun
A low point or position, literally (as, a depth) or figuratively (as, a nadir, a time when things are at their worst, least, minimum, etc).
- Examples
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You have achieved a new low in behavior, Frank.
Economic growth has hit a new low.
More examples (3)
Unemployment has reached a ten-year low.
During the 1960s and 1970s, when both the quality of architecture and the appreciation of historic buildings reached an all-time low, British Railways was notorious for replacing good station buildings and canopies with little more than bus shelters, usually in conjunction with de-staffing.
He also called for the US and China to rebuild their fractured relationship, which has plunged to new lows this year, but which Guterres said was “crucial” to climate action.
A low point or position, literally (as, a depth) or figuratively (as, a nadir, a time when things are at their worst, least, minimum, etc). The minimum atmospheric temperature recorded at a particular location, especially during one 24-hour period.
- Examples
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Today's low was 32 °F.
A cold one out there today, with lows reaching 33 degrees.
A period of depression; a depressed mood or situation.
- Examples
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He is in a low right now. the highs and lows of bipolar disorder
An area of low pressure; a depression.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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A deep low is centred over the British Isles.
The lowest-speed gearing of a power-transmission system, especially of an automotive vehicle.
- Examples
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Shift out of low before the car gets to eight miles per hour.
The lowest trump, usually the deuce; the lowest trump dealt or drawn.
A cheap, cost-efficient, or advantageous price.
Usage- Slang
- usually
- accompanied by "the"
- Examples
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He got the brand new Yankees jersey for the low.
Adverb
Close to the ground.
Of a pitch, at a lower frequency.
- Examples
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Can sing both high and low.
With a low voice or sound; not loudly; gently.
- Examples
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to speak low
[T]he amorous, odorous wind, / Breathes low between the sunset and the moon, […]
Under the usual price; at a moderate price; cheaply.
- Examples
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He sold his wheat low.
In a low mean condition; humbly; meanly.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.
In a time approaching our own.
- Examples
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In that part of the world which was first inhabited, […] even as low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with their flocks and herds.
In a path near the equator, so that the declination is small, or near the horizon, so that the altitude is small; said of the heavenly bodies with reference to the diurnal revolution.
- Examples
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The moon runs low, i.e. comparatively near the horizon when on or near the meridian.
Verb
To lower; to make low.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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I shall only say this, that all the other graces must low the sail to faith, and so it is faith must carry us through, being that last triumphing grace, […]
Now to use these as Hypotheseis, as himself in his Word, is pleas'd to low himself to our capacities, is allowable:
More examples (3)
The merry fowks that were the ben, / By this time 'gan to low their strain
She was quite free of bad inventions, / But was a bitch o high pretenfions, / For the grit folk o' a dimensions, / Ran for her breed; / Dog-officers may low their pensions, / Since Venie's dead, 'Twas past the art o'man to cure her, / […]
Dat 'ill be somtin' ta hise an' low wi' a ütterly breeze.
Verb
To moo.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The cattle were lowing.
In peals of thunder now she roars--and now / She gently whimpers like a lowing cow
More examples (2)
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.
It would have been a great privilege to be the mistress of an old time-honoured mansion, to call oaks and elms her own, to know that acres of gardens were submitted to her caprices, to look at herds of cows and oxen, and be aware that they lowed on her own pastures.
Noun
A flame; fire; blaze.
Usage- Scotland
- UK usage
- Countable
- dialectal
- Examples
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More examples (1)
She was, as one of them expressed himself, in a light low (bright flame) when they observed a king's ship, with her colours up, heave in sight from behind the cape. The guns of the burning vessel discharged themselves […]
A boy fell aff his chair a' in a low, for the discharge had set him on fire […]
[…] and he was sure to light of a verse blazing wi' a blue brimstone low that set all straight.
More examples (1)
And methought the whole world was lighted in a lowe, and with a great cry I awoke out of the dream.
Verb
To burn; to blaze.
Usage- Scotland
- UK usage
- dialectal
- Examples
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Driest wood will eithest low,
They scarcely left to co'er their fuds, To quench their lowan drouth.
More examples (3)
[…] in every crevice; and each individual brick shone and “lowed” with the intense heat. “As I am a Christian man,” thought he, “this is verily the mouth of the pit; and I am lost — lost for ever, for —”
Sand, striking a light with his flint and steel, and transferring the flame when it lowed up to the bowl of his tiny elf's pipe, so small that it just let in the top of his little finger as he settled the tobacco in it as it began to burn.
The next I saw, James parried a thrust so nearly that I thought him killed; and it lowed up in my mind that this was the girl's father, and in a manner almost my own, and I drew and ran in to sever them.
Noun
Barrow, mound, tumulus.
Usage- Archaic
- Obsolete
- Examples
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A barrow or Low, such as were usually cast up over the bodies of eminent Captains.
A hill.
Usage- Scottish
- Archaic
- dialectal
- Examples
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And some they brought the brown lint-seed, and flung it down from the Low.
Adjective
less than normal in degree or intensity or amount
- Antonyms
- Examples
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low prices
the reservoir is low
being at or having a relatively small elevation or upward extension
- Antonyms
- Examples
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low ceilings
low clouds
More examples (4)
low hills
the sun is low
low furniture
a low bow
very low in volume
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a low murmur
the low-toned murmur of the surf
unrefined in character
- Examples
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low comedy
used of sounds and voices; low in pitch or frequency
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
of the most contemptible kind
- Examples
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abject cowardice
a low stunt to pull
More examples (5)
a low-down sneak
his miserable treatment of his family
You miserable skunk!
a scummy rabble
a scurvy trick
low or inferior in station or quality
- Examples
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a humble cottage
a lowly parish priest
More examples (2)
a modest man of the people
small beginnings
no longer sufficient
- Synonyms
- Examples
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supplies are low
our funds are depleted
subdued or brought low in condition or status
- Synonyms
- Examples
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brought low
a broken man
More examples (1)
his broken spirit
filled with melancholy and despondency
- Examples
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gloomy at the thought of what he had to face
gloomy predictions
More examples (8)
a gloomy silence
took a grim view of the economy
the darkening mood
lonely and blue in a strange city
depressed by the loss of his job
a dispirited and resigned expression on her face
downcast after his defeat
feeling discouraged and downhearted
Noun
an air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a low moved in over night bringing sleet and snow
a low level or position or degree
- Antonyms
- Examples
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the stock market fell to a new low
the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor vehicle; used to start a car moving
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
Adverb
in a low position; near the ground
- Examples
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the branches hung low
Verb
make a low noise, characteristic of bovines
- Synonyms