slum

American  

[sluhm] / slʌm /

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.

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verb (used without object)

slummed, slumming

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 British  

/ 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

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verb

1. to visit slums, esp for curiosity

2. Also: slum it.  to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed

Other Word Forms

• deslum verb (used with object)
• slummer noun
• slummy adjective

Etymology

Origin of slum

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

Example Sentences

Booted out of his royal Windsor lodgings, was slumming it on the king’s private estate in Norfolk.

From Los Angeles Times

She learnt that the child lived in a slum and could not afford to go to school.

From BBC

Authorities often attempt to hem in or demolish slums rather than extend electricity, paved roads or schools to them.

From Barron's

He has faced a concerted challenge from singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, who styles himself the "ghetto president", after his stronghold in a slum where he grew up in the capital, Kampala.

From Barron's

Wine grew up in one of Kampala's biggest slums, Kamwokya, where thousands of Ugandans struggle to get by and feel forgotten by Museveni's government.

From Barron's

Related Words

• rookery