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Skid row

//ˌskɪd ˈɹəʊ// name, noun, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, United States.
  2. 2
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States.
  3. 3
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, also called the Gateway District
  4. 4
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States, also called the Bowery
  5. 5
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States, also called Old Town-Chinatown
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.
  2. 7
    Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:; A neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada called the DTES, commonly referred to as east hastings
Noun
  1. 1
    An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people. Canada, US, countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable
  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of skid row. alt-of
  3. 3
    a city district frequented by vagrants and alcoholics and addicts wordnet
  4. 4
    A situation of great desperation or misfortune. Canada, US, countable, figuratively, informal, uncountable

Etymology

An alteration of skid road (“road along which logs are dragged or skidded; (Canada, US, informal) downtown streets where loggers go for recreation on their time off”). In 1852, skid road was first applied to a slum area at the loggers’ part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Over time, the variant skid row came to refer to a district or slum frequented by alcoholics and hobos, even in areas without a lumber industry.

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