LOWLY (lowlier, lowliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: lowlier    , lowliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lowly mean? 

• LOWLY (adjective)
  The adjective LOWLY has 4 senses:

1. low or inferior in station or quality

2. inferior in rank or status

3. used of unskilled work (especially domestic work)

4. of low birth or station ('base' is archaic in this sense)

  Familiarity information: LOWLY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOWLY (adjective)

Comparative: lowlier   
Superlative: lowliest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Low or inferior in station or quality

Synonyms:

humble; low; lowly; modest; small

Context example:

small beginnings

Similar:

inferior (of or characteristic of low rank or importance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Inferior in rank or status

Synonyms:

junior-grade; lower-ranking; lowly; petty; secondary; subaltern

Context example:

a subordinate functionary

Similar:

junior (younger; lower in rank; shorter in length of tenure or service)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Used of unskilled work (especially domestic work)

Synonyms:

humble; lowly; menial

Similar:

unskilled (not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Of low birth or station ('base' is archaic in this sense)

Synonyms:

base; baseborn; humble; lowly

Context example:

of humble (or lowly) birth

Similar:

lowborn (of humble birth or origins)

 Context examples 

Your slave-morality of the meek and lowly will never save you.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You see I am only just emerging from my lowly station.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was no positive ill-nature in Maria or Julia; and though Fanny was often mortified by their treatment of her, she thought too lowly of her own claims to feel injured by it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I am poor and lowly and all unworthy of you; but if great love may weigh down such defects, then mine may do it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Harriet bore the intelligence very well—blaming nobody—and in every thing testifying such an ingenuousness of disposition and lowly opinion of herself, as must appear with particular advantage at that moment to her friend.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

We entered the quiet and humble temple; the priest waited in his white surplice at the lowly altar, the clerk beside him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Of some he thought highly and of some lowly, but he made no secret that the highest of all, and the one against whom all others should be measured, was Sir Charles Tregellis himself.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To the man who loves art for its own sake, remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of The Daily Telegraph, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust that you are lowly and serviceable?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you would come and see us, any afternoon, and take a cup of tea at our lowly dwelling, mother would be as proud of your company as I should be.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)