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

He has also appeared at demonstrations, and spent Christmas Day visiting some slums and dancing with people in the streets.

From BBC

“I’ve never been, nor will I ever become a magnate,” Maduro said in a speech at a Christmas dinner in a Caracas slum just before breaking into a folk song.

From The Wall Street Journal

Among the problems these and subsequent laws were meant to solve: “slums.”

From The Wall Street Journal

In his classic book “The Urban Villagers,” he argued that Italian areas usually considered “slums” were actually made up of interconnected sets of families who shared child care, discipline and moral responsibility.

From The Wall Street Journal

“What! No! Heavens! I scarcely survive traipsing through the slums, only to find my own house infected with plague! Eek! Eek!”

From Literature

Related Words

• rookery