keep a low profile: meaning and explanation
If you are keeping a low profile, then you are trying not to attract attention to yourself.
This is not the same as hiding – you just don’t want your presence to be too obvious. You are trying not to stand out. e.g. Despite being one of the most famous athletes in the world, when he is not competing he likes to keep a low profile and spend time with his family.
Imagine that your boss at work is in a very bad mood. You know that she will probably shout at someone at some point. To avoid this, you might keep a low profile – just do your normal tasks and avoid attracting her attention. If she doesn’t notice you, she is less likely to take her bad mood out on you.
This expression can also be used as an adjective, to describe something. In this case, we need to hyphenate the two words: low-profile. e.g. He’s never enjoyed being the centre of attention, so we’re going to organise quite a low-profile retirement party for him.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: North America
About the sentence
…I hadn’t actually been invited to the wedding, so I tried my best to keep a low profile…
Notice the useful expression to try your best to do sth. e.g. We don’t mind if you fail the exam, as long as you have tried your best.
Notice the use of the past perfect in this sentence (“I hadn’t actually been invited…”). This is because this past action took place before the main action of the sentence, which is also in the past (“…I tried my best…”).
Dictation #2
Accent: Wales
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Dictation #3
Accent: North America
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Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- Can you remember a time when you had to keep a low profile? Did you manage not to attract attention to yourself?
- Can you think of any famous people who keep a low profile in their day-to-day lives? Would you do the same if you were famous?
Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash
Well, I can’t quite remember an occasion where I had had too keep a low profile. However, I can think of a famous person that I consider keeps a low profile, and it’s Barack Obama. From my viewpoint, he has been keeping a low profile as I no longer have heard from him, neither in the news nor in other media.
Interesting Marisela – I agree that he keeps a very low profile in general. It’s probably quite nice for him!
Be careful with the tense: it should be “…as I no longer hear from him…” (you’re talking about the present, so just need present simple).
1) A long time ago, when I was working on a call center, I arrived late to work, so my boss nag me because of that. So I had to keep a low profile and tried my best in my callings to not make the problem bigger.
2) If I’m not wrong the last year, Obama travelled to my country, and he was seen buying in a store without security as he was a normal person… That’s great because he is modest
If I were famous, I would obviously do the same, because of the end of the day… I still a human
Hi Gabriela! Great examples 🙂
A few corrections:
– “…so my boss nagGED me because of that…”
– we wouldn’t say ‘callings’. You could say ‘calls’, or just ‘work’ because we understand from the context what type of work it is.
– “..as IF he WERE a normal person…”
– “…because AT the end of the day I AM still a human…”
I also know one famous person, who chose to KEEP A LOW PROFILE. He is Berners Lee, who invented http://www., but not all people know him.
That’s a great example! He seems to be a very humble man, and he leads a pretty normal life considering he invented something which has totally transformed the world.
What a great phase! 🙂 Love being on this website! Answering the question I guess we all keep a low profile from time to time. And sometimes it happens when I’m about to bump into a person who takes too much time by talking and talking and talking (at a party for instance). So to avoid this I try my best to keep a low profile 😉
Hahaha, excellent example Sveta 🙂
Perfect English, well done!
Yes, all the time I try to keep a low profile, because of my character, and also I don’t like to be the central attention. One famous person that has a low profile is Leonardo Dicaprio, as an actor and other activities he tries to do, for example, gives messages about global warning, etc