slumlord

American

[sluhm-lawrd] / ˈslʌmˌlɔrd /

noun

a landlord who owns slum buildings, especially one who fails to maintain or improve the buildings and charges tenants exorbitant rents.

slumlord British

/ ˈslʌmˌlɔːd /

noun

informal an absentee landlord of slum property, esp one who profiteers

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of slumlord

First recorded in 1950–55; slum + lord

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

slumlord

Perhaps the Democratic leaders could file a complaint with the city about this slumlord.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

It turned out that the story was made up by the slumlord who owned the building to excuse his neglect and some of the locals who had pumped up the story later recanted.

From Salon ● May 2, 2025

Whitney is the heiress to her parents’ slumlord fortune, a fact she pretends to distance herself from but can’t quite.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2024

“The church is not a slumlord; the system is set up for small landlords to be doomed to fail,” Hunter said.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2023

An apartment complex owned by slumlord Abe Greenberg was one of the first structures to go up in flames.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023