low – English adjective declension

Adjective: low

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparative	lower
Superlative	lowest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

standing on low ground
in a low valley, ringed by low hills
a low wall a low shelf
Narrative friezes in low relief were characteristic of Ionic architecture. [2012, Tyler Jo Smith, Dimitris Plantzos, A Companion to Greek Art, →ISBN:]
the low countries
Low German
the pitch (or: the ball) was low
a low bow
a low tide
the Mississippi is unusually low right now
It is a little low hearb […] [1607 (edition of 1967), Edward Topsell, The history of four-footed beasts]
The men are well-proportioned, rather low than tall, have a brown complexion, and reserved countenance. [1795, James Cavanah Murphy, Travels in Portugal, page 15:]
"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." [1911(?), Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, page 13]
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. [2022 March 25, Rachel Ramirez and Hafsa Khalil, “Antarctic ice shelf nearly the size of Los Angeles collapsed as temperatures soared to 40 above normal”, in CNN:]
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; […] [1878, Mary Eliza Joy Haweis, The Art of Beauty, London: Chatto & Windus, page 83:]
Why do girls wear low dresses? [1917, George Amos Dorsey, Young Low, page 195:]
low birth
low rank
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. [1971, Keystone Folklore Quarterly, volume 16, page 208:]
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. [1720, The Delphick oracle, page 35:]
God loves an humble soul. It is not our high birth, but our low hearts God delights in. [1829, Thomas Watson, Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects:]
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.' [1826, Ebenezer Erskine, The Whole Works of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, Sermon VII, page 103:]
the low point in her career
Virginia, for example, reached such a low point in her junior year that she briefly considered suicide [...] [2012, Faith Hartmann, Only a Fool Would Have Believed It in the First Place, →ISBN:]
low spirits
As low as I felt, at least I didn't have Hunding's [miserable] job. [2016, Rick Riordan, The Hammer of Thor, page 33:]
a low pulse
made (or: laid) low by sickness
And wilt thou weep when I am low? [1830, George Gordon Byron Baron Byron, Byron's Poems, page 511:]
[L]et the mournful martial music blow; / The last great Englishman is low. [1852, Alfred Tennyson, “Stanza III”, in Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 6:]
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. [1989, Bernard Smith, Sailloons and Fliptackers: The Limits to High-speed Sailing, →ISBN:]
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. [2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023, page 68:]
diets low in vitamin A
made from low-carbon steel
running low on cash
When silica is in low supply other classes of algae dominate the phytoplankton composition. [2002, V.N. Bashkin, Robert W. Howarth, Modern Biogeochemistry, →ISBN, page 151:]
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. [1870, Edward Burnett Tylor, Researches Into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, page 80:]
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. [1881, Anthony Trollope, Dr. Wortle's School: A Novel, page 6:]
[…] 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 […] [1889, Reginald Garton Wilberforce, Life of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and Winchester, page 152:]
the low northern latitudes
The note was too low for her to sing.
Generally, European men have lower voices than their Indian counterparts.
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?
Speak low if you speak love. [1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:]
a low card
The Physicians ordered a low diet, and cooling ptisans in great abundance. [1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 173:]
low gear

Adjectives inflected like low

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-
3. Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
4. Proto-Indo-European *légʰyeti
5. Proto-Germanic *ligjaną
6. Proto-Germanic *lēgaz
7. Old Norse lágrbor.
8. Middle English lāh
9. English low
10. From Middle English lah, loue, from Old Norse lágr (“low”), from Proto-Germanic *lēgaz (“low; flat”), from *ligjaną (“to lie; to lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *légʰyeti (“to be lying down”), from *legʰ- (“to lie”).
11. Cognates
12. Cognate with Scots laich (“low”), Saterland Frisian läich (“low”), West Frisian leech (“low”), Dutch laag (“low”), German Low German leeg, leeg' (“low; inferior”), West Flemish leeg (“lazy”), Danish lav (“low”), Faroese and Icelandic lágur (“low”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish låg (“low”), Finnish laaka (“flat”), Ingrian laaku (“gentle”); also Irish laigh, luigh (“to lie”), Manx lhie (“lie; lay”), Scottish Gaelic laigh (“lie; lay”), Faliscan 𐌋𐌄𐌂𐌄𐌕 (lecet, “he lies down”), Latin lectus (“bed”), South Picene 𐌅𐌄𐌉𐌀𐌕 (veiat, “to lie”), Ancient Greek λέχομαι (lékhomai, “to lie down”), Albanian lag (“band, encampment, troop”), Belarusian ляжа́ць (ljažácʹ, “to lie”), Bulgarian лежа́ (ležá, “to lie”), Czech ležet (“to lie”), Macedonian лежи (leži, “to lie”), Polish leżeć (“to lie”), Russian лежа́ть (ležátʹ, “to lie”), Serbo-Croatian лѐжати, lèžati (“to lie”), Slovene ležáti (“to lie”), Ukrainian лежа́ти (ležáty, “to lie”), Tocharian B lyäk- (“to lie”). More at lie. See: Dutch Adjectives 'laag', Finnish Adjectives 'laaka'.