Barbary Coast
Americannoun
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the Mediterranean coastline of the former Barbary States: former pirate refuge.
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the waterfront district of San Francisco in the 19th century, notorious for its cheap bars and nightclubs, prostitutes, gambling houses, and high incidence of crime.
noun
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.
Seven years later, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fleet—three frigates and a schooner—to subdue pirates disrupting shipping along North Africa’s Barbary Coast.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Barbary macaques are native to the Barbary Coast, the historic name given to coastal regions of North Africa.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 9, 2023
Disney had toyed on and off over the decades with expanding into the area, seemingly coming close in the 1980s with a project that would have taken inspiration from the Barbary Coast called Discovery Bay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2019
The Barbary Coast, described as the oldest bar in this North Carolina city, has a time-honored custom of staying open in tropical storms.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2018
The best Italian restaurant in the world—and I wish to say, after personal experience, that Sunny Italy itself is not barred—is a little place on the fringe of the Barbary Coast.
From Roughing it De Luxe by McCutcheon, John T.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
