lowball
lowball Lexical Profile
lowball Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Unfairly, deceptively, or unrealistically low, especially regarding a financial offer, bid, or estimate.
"The seller immediately rejected the buyer's lowball offer on the house."
• verb
To offer an unfairly or unrealistically low price, bid, or salary to someone.
"The insurance company tried to lowball the claimant on the repair costs."
To estimate or state a figure that is deliberately or deceptively lower than the real amount.
"The contractor lowballed the initial renovation quote just to secure the contract."
• noun
A deceptively or deliberately low bid, offer, or estimate.
"His initial bid was a classic lowball meant to test how desperate the owners were to sell."
American A cocktail served in a short tumbler (an old-fashioned glass) rather than a tall glass, or the short glass itself.
"The bartender poured the whiskey neat into a heavy crystal lowball."
A variant of draw poker in which the lowest hand wins the pot.
"After several rounds of standard Texas hold'em, the players switched to lowball."
• Rhymes for lowball
Word Origin & Etymology
Originating in 19th-century American English, the term first referred to a cocktail served in a short tumbler (as opposed to a tall highball) and a pitch thrown low in baseball, before evolving in the 1950s into a business metaphor for an intentionally low estimate or bid.