lowball
verb
low·ball ˈlō-ˌbȯl 
lowballed; lowballing; lowballs
transitive verb
1
: to give (a customer) a deceptively low price or cost estimate
2
: to give a markedly or unfairly low offer
lowballed him in contract negotiations
lowball noun
Example Sentences
It became clear that the contractor had lowballed us on the cost of materials. Management lowballed him in contract negotiations.
Recent Examples on the Web In a recession, companies are more reluctant to hire and often lowball their offers for talented workers. 
Serenity Gibbons, Forbes, 7 July 2022 That means a drafting team can’t lowball a player based on his medicals, as has happened on occasion in the past. San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 June 2022 Claims of casualties by government officials — who may sometimes exaggerate or lowball their figures for public relations reasons — are all but impossible to verify. John Leicester And Hanna Arhirova, Chicago Tribune, 4 June 2022 Claims of casualties by government officials — who may sometimes exaggerate or lowball their figures for public relations reasons — are all but impossible to verify. Hanna Arhirova, BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2022 And while there are many types of buyers that deal advisers are prepared to fend off—hostile ones, aggressive ones, those who lowball and then are willing to negotiate—Twitter faced an acquirer in Mr. Musk who was not in any deal playbook. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 2 May 2022 Critics of the voluntary deal say Trump’s definition of earnings is unclear and gave the president plenty of room to lowball the figure. Time, 8 Oct. 2021 Intel could opt to match AMD and Nvidia-comparable GPUs, or Intel could lowball it, effectively dropping a pricing grenade on AMD and Nvidia. Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, 19 Aug. 2021 In 2019, a system used on millions of patients to prioritize access to special care for people with complex needs was found to lowball the needs of Black patients compared to white patients. Tom Simonite, Wired, 21 June 2021 See More
Serenity Gibbons, Forbes, 7 July 2022 That means a drafting team can’t lowball a player based on his medicals, as has happened on occasion in the past. San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 June 2022 Claims of casualties by government officials — who may sometimes exaggerate or lowball their figures for public relations reasons — are all but impossible to verify. John Leicester And Hanna Arhirova, Chicago Tribune, 4 June 2022 Claims of casualties by government officials — who may sometimes exaggerate or lowball their figures for public relations reasons — are all but impossible to verify. Hanna Arhirova, BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2022 And while there are many types of buyers that deal advisers are prepared to fend off—hostile ones, aggressive ones, those who lowball and then are willing to negotiate—Twitter faced an acquirer in Mr. Musk who was not in any deal playbook. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 2 May 2022 Critics of the voluntary deal say Trump’s definition of earnings is unclear and gave the president plenty of room to lowball the figure. Time, 8 Oct. 2021 Intel could opt to match AMD and Nvidia-comparable GPUs, or Intel could lowball it, effectively dropping a pricing grenade on AMD and Nvidia. Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, 19 Aug. 2021 In 2019, a system used on millions of patients to prioritize access to special care for people with complex needs was found to lowball the needs of Black patients compared to white patients. Tom Simonite, Wired, 21 June 2021 See More Word History
First Known Use
1957, in the meaning defined at sense 1