- 1檔次很低的、很廉價的（帶貶義，不是單純說便宜）
Low-rent first talked about housing that costs little to rent — cheap rooms, cheap streets. People still use it that way, but often with a sour edge: not just 'not expensive', but 'cheap in a sad or ugly way'. Then the word jumped off houses and onto almost anything — a low-rent TV show, a low-rent lawyer, a low-rent trick. In that stretched use it means tacky and not respectable; you are looking down on it. It is informal, a bit American, and it always carries . You would not put it in a polite essay about homes people can afford. Though actually, if you only mean 'the rent is low' in a kind way, speakers more often say cheap rent or affordable, and keep low-rent for the judgement.
low-rent 最早是指房租很便宜的房子，例如便宜的房間和比較破舊的街道。現在大家還是這樣用，但通常帶有酸酸的負面意味：不是單純便宜，而是便宜得很可悲或很難看。
後來它的用法擴大了，幾乎什麼都能形容，格式是「a low-rent ＿＿」，例如 a low-rent TV show、a low-rent lawyer、a low-rent trick。用在這種擴大的意思時，它指俗氣、不體面，說的人是瞧不起對方的。這是非正式的用語，比較偏美式，而且永遠帶有不以為然的意思。
如果只是善意地說房租低，大家通常會說 cheap rent 或 affordable；low-rent 則留給比較刻薄的評價。
組成low (not much) + rent (money you pay to live in a place). The house-rent meaning came first; the 'cheap and not respectable' meaning grew out of it.
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
low-rentadj
- 1
derogatoryinformalLow-quality, trashy.
- You see what we're up against here. "Timecop," a low-rent "Terminator," is the kind of movie that is best not thought about at all, for that way madness lies.
- Hollinghurst's debut novel, The Swimming Pool Library (1988), was lauded for its startling conflation of high literary style and low-rent sex, and presented an eye-opening trawl through the London gay scene, from private clubs to public toilets, in the laconic tone of a latter-day Henry James.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。