slum

[ sluhm ]

noun

1. Often slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.
2. any squalid, run-down place to live.

verb (used without object)

, slummed, slum·ming.

1. to visit slums, especially from curiosity.
2. to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.

slum

/ slʌm /

noun

1. a squalid overcrowded house, etc
2. often plural a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding
3. modifier of, relating to, or characteristic of slums

   slum conditions

verb

1. to visit slums, esp for curiosity
2. Alsoslum it to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed

Derived Forms

• ˈslummy, adjective
• ˈslummer, noun

Other Words From

• slummer noun
• de·slum verb (used with object) deslummed deslumming

Word History and Origins

Origin of slum¹

1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure

Word History and Origins

Origin of slum¹

C19: originally slang, of obscure origin

Example Sentences

It will add more urban residents by 2050 than any other country, according to a 2014 UN estimate, and its slums are growing faster than its cities.

From MIT Technology Review

Until recently, Dashrath shared a common address with everyone around her—that of the slum itself.

From MIT Technology Review

More than a thousand homes, drainage chambers, community toilets, help centers, and drinking water tanks in the slum now have plus codes.

From MIT Technology Review

According to estimates, more than half of Nairobi’s four million people live in informal settlements, sometimes called slums.

From Science News For Students

The volunteers of the organisation provide a training program under which these women from slums, villages, govt.

From No Straight News

Two hundred girls are weaving in and out of dirty alleys in the seaside slum of West Point, Liberia.

From The Daily Beast

More serious still, the slum dwellers face enormous risk from unsafely built environments.

From The Daily Beast

Some argue that these migrants are better off than previous slum dwellers since they ride motorcycles and have cellphones.

From The Daily Beast

Hell, it worked for Tokyo in the 20th—after that city was decimated by Allied bombers, it was basically one big slum.

From The Daily Beast

With a group of young men in the slum he formed Rock Angels, a drag act performing dance, music and drama.

From The Daily Beast

I, followed the fates of my little slum-boys—and what I saw was that Tammany Hall was getting them.

From Project Gutenberg

Many are the shocking sights and sad experiences I have witnessed in street and slum work.

From Project Gutenberg

This slum must be our rendezvous when all's over; for hark ye, my lads, I'll not budge an inch till Luke Bradley be set free.

From Project Gutenberg

Puffs of energy had raised high buildings over there; over there an eccentric subsidence had left behind it a slum.

From Project Gutenberg

In nine cases out of ten they are lads of normal impulses whose possibilities have all been smothered by the slum.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• rookery