slum

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a crowded urban area characterized by severely inadequate housing, poverty, and poor living conditions

   The family rented one unfurnished room in a badly managed house in a slum.

2. 2
   verb

   to spend time in surroundings below one's usual standard of comfort, often for novelty; usually in the phrase slum it

   The wealthy travelers decided to slum it in a basic roadside hostel for one night.

First recorded in early nineteenth-century slang, initially for a room or lodging and soon for a poor, crowded urban district. Its earlier origin is unknown. The verb developed from the noun and underlies the phrase slum it.

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