From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlow lifeˈlow life noun 1 [uncountable]SSCLASS IN SOCIETY the life and behaviour of people who are involved in criminal or immoral activities a novel about low life in Chicago in the 1930s2 [countable] (also lowlife) American English informalSCCBAD PERSON someone who is involved in crime or who is bad Pete turned out to be a real lowlife. —lowlife /ˈləʊlaif $ ˈloʊ-/ adjective American English informal Charlie may be lowlife, but he isn’t stupid.
Examples from the Corpus
low life• They frequently suffer chest infections and have a low life expectancy.• Kevin, alias Macaulay Culkin, this time runs riot through New York's high life and low life.• Since his youth he had studied all forms of low life in both Paris and London.• De Beauvoir was fascinated with brothels, prostitutes and other forms of low life.• As in Shakespeare, there are scenes of high life and scenes of low life.• In 1932 he returned to Bubu de Montparnasse, a novel of Parisian low life which underlay passages in his urban poetry. 