lowdown

noun

1. (uncountable)inside information, the story or truth.

   “All the reporters hoped to be the first to get the lowdown on the celebrity's marriage plans.”

   “here's the lowdown”

   “to give somebody the lowdown”

   “Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home”

2. (uncountable)A lowlife, a despicable person.

adj

1. Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful.

   “lowdown tactics”

2. seedy, sketchy, disreputable

   “So there I was, in the front row of course (it was my reportorial duty), with a bunch of gay men and straight women. And we're all involved in a lowdown — but eminently "Safe" — celebration of the erotic possibilities of the male body.”

   “Some kinda way, he talked Aunt Fanny into running off with him that night. When they got as far as Kansas City, he was through with her. They stayed in some lowdown kinda hotel in the colored section there', and after that they were headed God knows where.”

3. down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men.

adv

1. Unfairly; dishonourably; in a deceitful or mean manner.

   ““I say, that’s playing it a bit low down,” I protested.”