Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) cheap, distasteful, unfashionable.

1957		in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dict. (1998).
1961		J. Jacobs American Cities 8: [T]he North End in Boston [...] is an old low-rent area merging into the heavy industry of the waterfront, and it is officially considered Boston's worst slum and civic shame.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 38: They once made a bet as to which of them had been born in the most Low Rent, bottomdog shack.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 131: They mostly live in Queens and low-rent places like that.
1983		Columbia Journalism Rev. 11–12 : His rambling, low-rent, chippie-in-the-back-seat, county jail narratives [R].
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 150: He dealt with low-rent shitheads all the time.
1999		Observer Mag. 22 Aug. 9: The film follows various low-rent, rave-generation types around LA’s streets.
2000		Guardian 11 Jan. 16: A sort of low-rent fan dance that ended with Hardee and his partners naked, swaying and unashamed.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 126: I can’t go into bars anymore, especially the low-rent joints.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 182: It surprises me that any member of [the family] might associate with low-rent rubbish like Trevor Pettingill.
2010		C. Hiaasen Star Island (2011) 45: Another low-rent rocker, covered with cheap Venice ink.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 176: ‘Not really my kind of thing, all a bit low-rent really’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 200: ‘If you think I’m gonna let you go on another job with low-rent Jesse James [...] you done lost your mind’.