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American railroad term that described one of two positions of the ball of a ball signal. This is the same history for highball.

2001, Anthony J. Biancull, Trains and Technology: The American Railroad in the Nineteenth Century, ISBN 0874138035:


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.

See also[edit]


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.
  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.
  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.