lowball

American railroad term that described one of two positions of the ball of a ball signal. Compare highball.^[1]

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lowball

1. Significantly below the actual cost or value.
   • 2021 December 13, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine‎^[1]:

     In April, NASA selected SpaceX to build the lunar lander for the Artemis program, thanks in part to a lowball $2.9 billion bid.

   • 2025 April 15, Gal Beckerman, “Looks Like Mussolini, Quacks Like Mussolini”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     At the meeting last Wednesday during which these changes were announced, the interim head of the NEH also estimated that each of the 250 statues would cost $100,000 to $200,000, bringing the total cost as high as $50 million. And this may have been a lowball figure.

lowball (plural lowballs)

1. The position of the ball on an American railroad ball signal that indicated Stop.
2. (poker) A form of poker in which the lowest-ranking poker hand wins the pot. Usually the ace is the lowest-ranking card, straights and flushes do not count making the best possible hand being A, 2, 3, 4, 5 regardless of suits (in contrast to deuce-to-seven lowball.)
3. A form of cribbage in which the first to score 121 (or 61) is the loser.
4. An unmixed alcohol drink served on ice or water in a short glass.
5. Clipping of lowball glass.

• (drink & glass): highball

• cribbage
• poker

lowball (third-person singular simple present lowballs, present participle lowballing, simple past and past participle lowballed)

1. (transitive) To give an intentionally low estimate of anything, not necessarily with deceptive intent.
   • 2020, Trump's ambitious plan as the US becomes the COVID-19 pandemic's new epicentre (Planet America)‎^[3], spoken by John Barron (John Barron), ABC News In-depth (YouTube):

     It may be, but it is worth noting that if the mortality rate is as low as 0.7% as some experts now hope rather than between 3 and 5% as the data suggests so far, that is still a lot of dead Americans. Californian health officials are bracing for a 56% infection rate. In New York, they are talking about a range of between 30% and 80%, so if we just lowball that, that is close to seven hundred thousand dead Americans as a result of COVID-19. Modeling based on current social and economic disruption actually puts the number at 1.2 million people dying, all the way up to 2.2 million if no measures are taken to reduce contagion and the virus is allowed to run its course.

2. (transitive) To give (a customer) a deceptively low price or cost estimate that one has no intention of honoring or to prepare a cost estimate deliberately and misleadingly low.
   • 2025 February 19, Tom Nichols, “Who Is Running the United States, Musk or Trump?”, in The Atlantic‎^[4]:

     A few other news flashes from the interview: The president of the United States thinks that the government should not pay its bills in full. It should lowball its contractors and force them to accept half payment, he said.

3. (transitive) To make an offer well below an item's true value, often to take advantage of the seller's desperation or desire to sell the item quickly.

• highball

• “lowball adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “lowball v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present