slum

[ sluhm ]

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)

, slummed, slum·ming.

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

/ 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

verb

1. to visit slums, esp for curiosity
2. Alsoslum it to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed

Derived Forms

• ˈslummy, adjective
• ˈslummer, noun

Other Words From

• slummer noun
• de·slum verb (used with object) deslummed deslumming

Word History and Origins

Origin of slum¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of slum¹

C19: originally slang, of obscure origin

Example Sentences

She explained how the slum neighbourhood of Petare, which used to be a stronghold for the president “began to descend” from the mountains to the city.

From BBC

Detectives have been scouring the site in the Mukuru slum since Friday, when the corpses of six other women were found in sacks floating in a sea of rubbish.

From BBC

“There, it is coming,” Mr. Kumar shouted to a woman waiting on the slum’s edge.

From New York Times

Kafu, now 40, is a presenter on Ghetto Radio, a station popular among young people in the slum areas of the capital, Nairobi, and uses his platform to speak out against gun violence.

From BBC

He’s the heartless rent collector who goes door to door in his father’s Brooklyn slum buildings, dodging pots of boiling water flung by tenants.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• rookery