dive bar
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of dive bar
First recorded in 1940–45
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.
“We used to love going to the Smog Cutter,” she says of the shuttered Silver Lake dive bar, “to have a couple Bud Lights and sing Mariah Carey really poorly.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 31, 2025
The Oakland Coliseum, the A’s longtime home, was widely considered one of the most run-down stadiums in the major leagues — baseball’s last dive bar, as the Guardian newspaper put it.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2025
It was created as an antidote to the prickly, male-dominated world of dive bar pool — all the exhilaration without the bickering turf wars with bar regulars.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2024
For Lorell, the dive bar exists as a third space.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2024
“You know the Allens over on Porter Street, by that dive bar called Drinkers?”
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
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.
