Forms: 3 laȝghere, lah(e)re, lahȝhre, 4 lagher, law(i)er, logher, 5 lougher, louȝer, lowyr, Sc. lavar, -war, 4, 7 Sc. lauer, 4– lower. [f. LOW a. + -ER3.]
A. adj. The comparative of LOW a.
1. As an ordinary comparative (capable of being followed by than): see the senses of LOW a.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2664. Þohh wass ȝho micele lahre, Þann ure laffdiȝ Marȝe wass. Ibid., 3746. Lasse þann hiss enngell, & lahȝhre inoh.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 36. Hwa-se, of engel, lihteð to iwurðen lahre, þen a beast … loki hu ha spede!
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9467. Sua hei na-thing was euer wroght, Þat … ne moght Fall dun in to lagher [Gött. lauer] state.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 58. Thai said, successioun of Kyngrik Was nocht to lawer feys lik.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, II. i. 69. Qwen tha ar far lawar.
1450–80. trans. Secreta Secret., 39. Of whiche lougher men in degre mowe lerne gret doctryne.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xv. (1885), 145. What lower man was þer sytinge in þat counsell, þat [etc.].
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxvi. 40. They wald with nobill men be nemmit, Syne laittandly to lawar leinde.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 76. And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threatning to devour me opens wide. Ibid. (1671), Samson, 1246. Stalking with less unconsci’nable strides, And lower looks.
1740. Ld. Baltimore in Gentl. Mag., X. 586. The Estimate of the Navy … is lower … than that which was laid before us the last Session.
1774. T. Hutchinson, Diary, 7 Oct. The people of Norfolk are generally of a lower size, and very few tall.
1839. Yeowell, Anct. Brit. Ch., vii. (1847), 73. It seems difficult to place their origin at a lower period than the apostolic age.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 294. A small body of grenadier dragoons, who came from a lower class and received lower pay.
1862. Trollope, Orley F., I. xxxii. 254. Hush-sh-sh. For heaven’s sake, Mr. Mason, do be a little lower.
1868. Joynson, Metals, 115. The solder, of course, has a much lower fusion point than the metals to be joined.
1873. Princess Alice, in Mem., 26 July (1884), 308. I feel lower and sadder than ever.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. ii. 139. Try and keep that lower in tone.
absol. 1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 186. Can the lower create the higher?
1885. Tennyson, Locksley Hall 60 Yrs. After, 124. So the Higher wields the Lower, while the Lower is the Higher.
2. Used in contradistinction to UPPER or HIGHER, as the specific designation of an object, a class or group of objects, a part or parts of some whole (with reference either to local situation or to rank, dignity or place in classification); occas. in partitive concord (= ‘the lower part of’), esp. in geographical names.
1590. Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, Proëme 16. All higher and lower Officers of Armies under the Generall.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. vi. 10. Lower Syria.
1611. Bible, Gen. vi. 16. With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
1631. Massinger, Beleeve as You List, II. ii. This is the bodye of Antiochus, Kinge of the lower Asia.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 410. Both contain Within them every lower facultie Of sense.
1702. J. Purcell, Cholick (1714), 3. The outward Muscles and Skins of the Lower-Belly.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 131. In the lower Ages the Legend on Medals did not often allude to a particular Fact.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 42. The Corner of the Lower-Lip.
1783. Burke, East India Bill, Wks. IV. 72. The lower sort in the camp it seems could not be restrained.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 101. The Lower Wall or the Floor of the Orbit is nearly plain.
1840. Macaulay, Ess., Von Ranke (1843), III. 220. Merchants from the Lower Danube.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., x. 193. The sleeves of the hauberk sometimes were cut short about the middle of the lower arm.
1873. Dawson, Earth & Man, iii. 36. The Huronian or Lower Cambrian. Ibid., iv. 56. The Lower Silurian is the Upper Cambrian of Sedgwick.
1873. Helps, Anim. & Mast., i. (1875), 5. The treatment of the lower animals by man.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Aug., 448/2. Strong lower-sail winds.
1889. Pollock, etc., Fencing, ii. (Badm. Libr.), 43. There are four lines in fencing; two upper and two lower.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ iii. (1900), 23. An immense fourfold tackle from the main lowermast-head.
b. Phrase. † To have the lower hand: to have lost the superiority; to be second best off.
1693. Mem. Count Teckely, III. 72. When they have once the lower-hand,… they no longer distinguish what they do.
3. quasi-sb. † a. One lower; an inferior. Obs.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10739. Whase laȝheþþ himm Bineþenn his lahȝhre.
1340. Ayenb., 175. Þe zinne is gratter … ine ane prelat þanne ine ane loȝer.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 104. Þei are vnfeiþful to þer souereyns, vneuyn to þer lowar.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xxi. 89. Wheþir he suffre of his prelate or of his piere, or of his lower.
† b. The lower part or parts of (something). Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxii. 9. Into þe lavgher of þe earth.
4. Special collocations: lower-boy, a boy in the lower school (see below); lower-case Printing (see CASE sb.2 9); also attrib.; lower chamber = lower-house; lower classes, those below the middle rank in society; lower criticism, verbal or textual criticism (cf. higher criticism, s.v. CRITICISM 2 b); lower critic, one who is occupied with lower criticism; lower deck, the deck immediately over the hold, orig. only of a ship with two decks; also attrib.; Lower Empire [= F. bas empire], the later Roman Empire (formerly, in numismatic use, from the reign of Gallienus; now usually, from the reign of Constantine, or some still later epoch); lower fourth, fifth, etc., the lower division of the fourth, fifth, etc., form in a public school; also attrib.; lower house, the inferior branch of a legislature consisting of two houses; also of the convocation of the Church of England; lower † order or orders = lower classes; lower school, in public schools, usually the forms below the fifth; also attrib.; (the or this) lower world, earth as opposed to heaven or the heavenly bodies.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. I. viii. 92. The *lower boy or fag,… asked his master whether he had further need of him.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, i. 1. A mob of two hundred lower boys, vicious with cold and the enforcement of keeping goal through the first football match of the season.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xiv. ¶ 1. The Stem, and other Fat Stroaks of *Lower-Case Roman.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VII. 383/2. The letters of the lower case.
1890. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 251. The type is getting on: I have all the lower-case letters (26).
1885. Lowe, Bismarck, I. 293. The *Lower Chamber would not yield an inch to the Crown and the Upper House.
1772. (the *lower classes of the people).
1806. (the lower class) [see CLASS sb. 2].
1849. Thirlwall, Rem., III. 346. Efforts … to elevate the intellectual condition of the lower classes.
1897. Rendel Harris, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 342. Resch is not merely a *‘lower critic’ busied with readings of the existing Gospels. Ibid. The *Lower Criticism of the New Testament.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4521/2. We fired, with the utmost Vigour,… part of our *Lower-deck Guns.
1758. J. Blake, Plan Mar. Syst., 2. The ports of the said lower-deck to be grated on the inside.
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., 246. The lower-deck ports were then opened.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 12 April, 4/3. Lieutenant … is the highest step to which a lower-deck rating can attain.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VI. 573/2. (Empire) The *lower empire comprehends near 1200 years, reckoning [from 260] down to the destruction of Constantinople in 1453.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. viii. The driving of this *lower-fourth must have been grievous work. Ibid. He and the other lower-fourth boys.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 50. He … placeth him in the *lower house.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 49. Exultation was heard through all the lower house.
1852. Bp. Wilberforce, Lett., in R. G. Wilberforce, Life (1881), II. iv. 140. Suppose that … the Lower House [of Convocation] elected another [Prolocutor].
1862. Acts Massach., 254. Lower House.
1869. Rogers, Hist. Gleanings, Ser. I. 23. Ultimately, however, the Lower House [Commons] conceded the demands of the Upper.
1712. (the *lower Order of Britons).
1749. [see ORDER sb. 2].
1796. G. M. Woodward, Eccent. Excurs., 14. The adjoining skittle-ground is filled with people of the lower order (according to fashionable denomination).
1822. Cobbett, Weekly Reg., 27 April, 196. I will make your Aristocratic insolence bend before the superior mind of the ‘Lower Orders.’
1857. T. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. v. There’s nothing like candour for a *lower-school boy.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 38. The Globe that lights the *lower World.
a. 1599. Spenser, Mutability, vi. 14. Mean-while the lower World … was darkned quite.
1675. South, Serm. (1823), I. 301. All the light and influence that the heavens bestow upon this lower world.
5. Comb. Forming comparatives to the combinations of LOW a. (see LOW a. IV).
1622. H. Sydenham, Serm. Sol. Occ., II. (1637), 25. Apprehensions lower-roofed.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, xiii. 242. Smaller, clumsier, lower-brained, and weaker-jawed than their elders.
B. adv. The comparative of LOW adv., q.v. Lower down: the comparative of LOW DOWN.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 209. The kynges shyp … descended lower, before a towne in Holland.
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., xiii. 10. Quha that wald the mater vnderstand, He man luke lawer.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. i. 120. She her selfe is hit lower.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlviii. 143. Come no lauer.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 20. No Prince living … descended lower in presenting her person to the publique view.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 122. Let us continue on the story down lower still.
1648. Fairfax, etc., Remonstrance, 17. Then he fell to play lower.
1775. Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 80. How it was performed, we shall teach lower in this Book.
1731. P. Shaw, Three Ess. Artif. Philos., 62. A viscous clammy … Mixture, scarce at all disposed to ferment, before ’tis let down lower with Water.
1771. Junius Lett., liv. 288. The lower they are degraded … the more submissively they must depend upon his favour.
1782. Cowper, Truth, 170. Your portion is with them,—nay, never frown, But, if you please, some fathoms lower down.
1838–9. Hallam, Lit. Europe, II. i. § 48. We find not a few editions…:—Cicero de Officiis … 1553; Virgil, 1570;… Horace and Juvenal, 1574. It is needless to proceed lower, when they become more frequent.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 64. Still farther north [the snow line] reaches yet lower.
