slum

[ sluhm ]

See synonyms for: slum slums on Thesaurus.com

noun

Often slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.
any squalid, run-down place to live.

verb (used without object),slummed, slum·ming.

to visit slums, especially from curiosity.
to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.

Origin of slum

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

Other words from slum

slummer, noun
de·slum, verb (used with object), de·slummed, de·slum·ming.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use slum in a sentence

Shirley MacLaine, slumming across the pond in Downton Abbey, talks with Sandra McElwaine.
‘A Certain Age’—Shirley MacLaine Rattles Downton Abbey | Sandra McElwaine | December 27, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
What starts out as Casual Friday must metastasize eventually into Slumming Sunday.
Our Sweatpants Nightmare | Sean Macaulay | January 17, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
If you were considerably older and knew how to speak French, the slumming might prove interesting—for one evening.
Paris Vistas | Helen Davenport Gibbons
I'll be delighted to go slumming for you any time again that you say, and please don't mind asking me.
The Witness | Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
How Miss Alice would like that—to catch me going 'slumming' with my maid!
Miss Billy's Decision | Eleanor H. Porter

It wasn't exactly slumming—and besides, he really went to study the people—didn't you, Gilbert?
The Cruise of the Make-Believes | Tom Gallon
But subsequently she goes slumming with Doris to such good purpose that the latter turns sick of the whole thing.
Punch, or the London Charivari, May 6, 1914 | Various

British Dictionary definitions for slum

slum

/ (slʌm) /

noun

a squalid overcrowded house, etc
(often plural) a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding

(modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of slums: slum conditions

verbslums, slumming or slummed (intr)

to visit slums, esp for curiosity
Also: slum it to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed

Origin of slum

C19: originally slang, of obscure origin

Derived forms of slum

slummer, noun
slummy, adjective

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

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