Slum

Quick meaning: Slum is a noun meaning (countable, derogatory) A dilapidated neighborhood where many people live in a state of poverty.

Meaning

(countable, derogatory) A dilapidated neighborhood where many people live in a state of poverty.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive) To visit a neighborhood of a status below one's own.
2. (intransitive, UK, slang, dated) To saunter about in a disreputable manner.
3. (UK, obsolete, slang) Nonsense; humbug.
4. (slang, uncountable) Inexpensive trinkets awarded as prizes in a carnival game.
5. (slang) Slumgullion; a meat-based stew.

Example Sentences

Making twenty times his investment in only seconds, the concessionaire smiled as he awarded the nickel slum, often a stuffed worm, to each unwitting pigeon.

Go to the half built-upon slums behind Battlebridge […] you will find groups of boys […] squatting in the mud, among the rubbish, the broken bricks, the dust-heaps, and the fragments of timber […]

Another hanky pank is the darts and balloons. No gaffs, no grift, nothing phoney. Game for the kids and the family. Get a dozen gross of slum and pass it out to the kids, and everybody'll love you.

When you meet the girl who wouldn't et cetera you will tell her that you are slumming, visiting your own six A.M. Lower East Side of the soul on a lark, stepping nimbly between the piles of garbage to the gay marimba rhythms in your head.

Word Forms

• slums
• slumming
• slummed

Synonyms for slum

Depending on context, synonyms include barrio, estate, favela, ghetto, jects, projects.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include slummy, poor, favela, barrio, ghetto, shantytown.

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