Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the stomach.

1911

E.J. Brady Tom Pagdin Pirate 86: ‘I ain’t feeling none too well,’ he murmured, placing a hand on his lower deck [...] . ‘I got a pain [...] all over me stummick’.

see end n. (1b)

the lower working and/or criminal classes, the antithesis of the upper ten n. (1); also attrib.

1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 130: ‘[P]retty company; the élite of St. Giles, I suppose? honourable members of the lower five.
1876		Rpscommon & Leitrim Gaz. 8 Apr. 3/1: Next came a duet, ‘The Upper Ten and the Lower Five,’ [...] The contrast between the representative of the Upper Ten (Mr. Carrie), and that of the Lower Five (Mr. Burd), was something striking.
1886		Suffolk & Essex Free Press 21 July 3/1: [headline] UPPER TEN OR LOWER FIVE.
1889		Yarmouth Mercury 26 Jan. 5/3: The new Conservative ‘lower five’ establishment may be set afloat in the garb of a Working Men’s Club and Concert Hall.
1895		Harington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Rich Girl and the Poor 🎵 Just a song of contrasts I'll contrive, / ’Tween the upper ten and lower five.
1901		Yorks. Post 1 Feb. 7/4: The working man would thoroughly enjoy these [i.e. lectures, concerts, etc.] and be kept from temptation [...] the ‘lower five’ only too thankfully keep out of pubUc-bonses if only they have somewhere to go in the evening.
1908		New Ross Standard 9 Oct. 6/3: The Lower Five. Ellen Connors, Wesford-street, summoned Peter Murphy, do., for abusive language. Patrick Connors, Wexfordstreet, summoned same defendant for assault, and Wm. Murphy (brother to Peter) summoned Patrick Connors for assault.
1914		Bioscope 20 Aug. 766/1: NEW MAJESTIC CO. THE TIE THAT BINDS.-A ‘Majestic’ masterpiece, intensely dramatic and a real story of ‘the lower five’.
1921		Burnley News 16 Apr. 9/4: No doubt the schedule will annoy some who wish to be thought of [as] the ‘Upper ten’ and yet whose position in the social scale is midway between that class and the ‘Lower Five’.
1937		Yorks. Post 10 Feb. 7/4: Since the last sitting I have had half-a-dozen letters, not from the Upper Ten, but from the Lower Five, and they are pleading to be given a chance to get out o f their entanglements.

the vagina.

1784		Rambler’s Mag. Jan. 40/1: The said Sir C— W— shall be totally expelled their lower houses, and declared him totally unqualified to be a candidate for any of their burrows.
1784		Rambler’s Mag. June 220/2: My utmost ambition is to be a member of the lower house where [...] I have no doubt I could render essential services to my country.

the vagina.

[1646		Virgins Complaint 2: [We cannot] appease the hunger of our mouths beneath the wast, since the departure of the lusty young Gentlemen, Courtiers, and Cavaliers].
1788		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 125: The upper mouth he keeps constantly supplied with its favorite food, but we fear Jemmy has not parts suffieient to supply the lower with a tenth part of its necessary food.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 185: The anatomical relationship of the bower of bliss and its main channel is indicated in such phrases as the [...] lower mouth, the upright grin (except, traditionally, in China), a bit on a fork.

see under wig n.²

1. (Aus./US) as low as one can go.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 10/2: Lower than a snake’s belt-buckle – Not very high.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 85: That lower than a snail’s belly of a gold-toothed slut.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 181: My opinion of you is lower than a snake’s belly.
1977		Maledicta 1 (Summer) 13: A man of low moral cal- ibre is lower than the spots on a snake’s ass.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 177: He’s lower than a snake’s belly (or a lizard drinking).
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 35: Lower than a snake’s belly: The person is. A dead-set bastard.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 127: There are [...] subtle gradations in the types of stupidity, thoughtlessness, hopelessness, incapacity and sheer ineptitude that may come in for verbal censure. A person may be: [...] lower than a snakes’s belly and lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut.
2004		Guardian 10 July 3: You’re lower than a snake’s belly.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 92: She’ll hate you [...] you’re lower than snake shit.

2. (orig. US black, also lower than a midget’s ass in hell) depressed.

1938		W. Smitter F.O.B. Detroit 237: I didn’t say nothing. I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly myself.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 141: Nor did he give a tinker’s damn. He felt lower than a snake’s hip.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 66: I returned to the flophouse despondent, tired and hungry, my spirits lower than a midget’s ass in hell.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 124: Lower than a snake’s belly Depressed.

used of a person categorized as the lowest of the low.

1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 46: Lower still is one who is lower than the belly of a cockroach, perhaps an original New Yorkism for the lowest of the low.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

1. extremely depressed.

1968		G. Legman Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 209: An American folk-simile: ‘lower than whale shit — and that’s on the bottom of the ocean.’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 240: Fabbulous Frank slumped [...] feeling lower than whale shit.

2. (also lower than shark shit) of no moral worth.

1977		Maledicta 1 (Summer) 13: At the bottom of the heap is the individual who is lower than whale-shit-and that’s on the bottom of the ocean.
1978		W. Groom Better Times Than These (1979) 32: All second lieutenants were ‘lower than whaleshit’—which is at the bottom of the ocean.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 140: Bloody female screws are lower than shark shit.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] He’d rob a bus-load of orphans and bag them about Father’s Day. [...] This bloke would have to reach up to touch bottom. Lower than shark shit.