Ads
mini Gastric Bypass $480 www.mini-gastric-bypass.me/ NO surgery! makes your stomach size small Now
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.
verb (used without object)
3.
to visit slums, especially from curiosity.
4.
to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.
Origin:
1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure
1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure
Related forms
slum·mer, noun
de·slum, verb (used with object), de·slummed, de·slum·ming.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To slum
00:10
Slum
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:
| to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax. |
| to spend time idly; loaf. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
slum (slʌm) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 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 |
| —vb , slums, slumming, slummed | |
| 4. | to visit slums, esp for curiosity |
| 5. | Also: slum it to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed |
| [C19: originally slang, of obscure origin] | |
| 'slummer | |
| —n | |
| 'slummy | |
| —adj | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
slum
1845, from back slum "back alley, street of poor people" (1825), originally a slang word meaning "room," especially "back room" (1812), of unknown origin. Go slumming is from 1884, pastime popularized by East End novels. Slumlord first attested 1953, from slum landlord (1893).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Police placed netting over a stream running through the slum to stop the bodies being washed away.
After daybreak, the rumor of a tap with running water sent her stumbling in a panic through the slum's narrow corridors.
The model is expected to ensure a long-term, sustainable solution to upgrade living standards of slum dwellers.
The grave in the slum is believed to contain up to eighty bodies.
Matching Quote
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
