slum

 
Pronunciation: /slʌm/

noun

  • a squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people: inner-city slums the area was fast becoming a slum for the destitute [as modifier]: slum areas slum dwellers
  • a house or building unfit for human habitation: he moved from a two-room slum into a local authority house

verb (slums, slumming, slummed)

[no object] informal
  • spend time at a lower social level than one’s own through curiosity or for charitable purposes: day trippers slumming among the natives
  • (slum it) put up with conditions that are less comfortable or of a lower quality than one is used to: businessmen are having to slum it in aircraft economy class seats

Derivatives

slummer

noun

Origin:

early 19th century (originally slang, in the sense 'room'): of unknown origin