| 释义 |
▪ I. slum, n.1|slʌm|
[Of cant origin, and in all senses except 2–4 only in slang or canting use.]
I.
†1. A room. Obs.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Slum, a room. 1823Bee Dict. Turf. s.v., Thus we may have ‘the little slum’,..‘the back slum’, and a slum in front. 1824Hist. Gaming 28 Regaling..in the back parlour (vulgo slum) of an extremely low-bred Irish widow.
2. a. A street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor; a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighbourhood or district where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character. Chiefly pl., and freq. in the phrase back slum(s). Also rarely, a house materially unfit for human habitation.
(a)1825Westmacott Eng. Spy II. 32 The back slums lying in the rear of Broad St. 1851Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 251 When the back slums are going to be invaded. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) ix. 203 The unspeakable ugliness of a back slum in London. 1880R. S. Watson Visit Wazan iv. 72 The back slums are not more inviting than those of many European towns.
(b)1845Athenæum 18 Jan. 75 In the thick of the once renowned ‘slums’ of St. Giles's. 1860All Year Round No. 74. 570 An obscure cabaret—say pothouse—lying in a slum. 1889Jerome Idle Thoughts 117 A little mite sitting on a doorstep in a Soho slum. 1894Sala London up to Date vi. 79 Large tracts of indescribably dirty, profligate, and felonious slums. 1955Times 25 Aug. 5/5 Nowadays people who live in so-called slum houses (a ‘slum’, as officially defined means a house materially unfit for habitation), set a good standard of cleanliness. 1972Observer 31 Dec. 8/2 He had inherited nearly two million slums.
fig.1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 84 The slums and stews of the debauched brain.
b. Theatr. (See quot.)
1886Stage Gossip 69 Such lowly edifices of the drama as wooden buildings of humble erection and booths are frequently designated ‘slums’.
3. Representation of slum life or conditions.
1885Pall Mall G. 7 Apr. 10/1, I should like to know who would stand five acts of ‘slum’.
4. a. attrib. and Comb., as slum area, slum-burrow, slum-dweller, slum-literature, slum-people, slum property, slum street, etc.; slum-bred adj.
Many combs. of these types occur in recent newspaper usage. (N.E.D.)
1863B. Jerrold Signals of Distress 7 It is a genuine bit of slum-literature. 1878Gordon Jrnl. in Hill G. in C. Africa (1881) 326 These slum people liked their visitor. 1887Contemp. Rev. Dec. 772 That class rarely stray..from their slum-burrows and dens. 1891Contemp. Rev. Oct. 548 Tens of millions will be exposed to the physical and mental blight of the ‘submerged’ slum-dweller. 1898E. Howard To-morrow xiv. 147 What will become of this slum property?.. These wretched slums will be pulled down. 1924Glasgow Herald 8 Mar. 7 The slum problem is fundamentally not one of stone and lime or cubic space, but of mental and social outlook. 1928Galsworthy Swan Song i. vii. 57 Slum⁓dwellers were such good sorts! 1932L. Golding Magnolia St. iii. vi. 537 A tribe of inconceivable people who lived in a slum street in a dark English town. 1935C. S. Forester Afr. Queen iv. 86 His slum-bred father and mother. 1939C. Day Lewis Child of Misfortune ii. ii. 151 The Church..held slum-property, helped to exploit innocent native tribes and ruined their morals and physique. 1940‘G. Orwell’ Inside Whale 20 Low wages and the growth and shift of population had brought into existence a huge, dangerous slum-proletariat. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xviii. 389 A row of crowded slum houses with front doors cheek by jowl. 1959J. Cary Captive & Free ix. 41 The mid-town terraces which can and have so easily become slum tenements. 1960‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene vi. 100 The penalties of the isolated, community-less life of the slum-bred entertainer. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Feb. 27/1 Maple Leafs can muddle into the slum area of fifth place and there are few hoots of derision. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 182 The town itself has some 30,000 or 40,000 inhabitants..who don't want Birmingham slum dwellers dumped on them as overspill. 1979G. St. Aubyn Edward VII viii. 379 She insisted on being shown his slum property in the East End of London. 1980J. Melville Chrysanthemum Chain 135 Walker made his way out and into the shabby slum street.
b. Special Combinations: slum clearance, the evacuation and demolition of slums, usu. accompanied by the rehousing of the inhabitants; freq. attrib.; also slum clearer, clearing ppl. a.; slumland, the slums; slum landlord, one who lets slum property to tenants, esp. one who allows his property to fall into disrepair; hence slum landlordism, the practice of letting slum property; slumlord U.S. = slum landlord above; hence slumlordship; slum-sister, a woman devoted to charitable and educative work in the slums.
[1900A. Smith Housing Question iii. 60 The clearance of slums should not be taken to make room for housing schemes.] 1907E. R. Dewsnup Housing Problem in Eng. xi. 227 Local Authorities..have hesitated to shoulder the financial burden that would result from any general application of the powers of slum clearance placed at their disposal by statute law. 1930T. E. Lawrence Let. 19 Jan. (1938) 678 The area it occupied turned into a public garden, in pursuance of the slum-clearance scheme. 1936T. S. Eliot Essays Ancient & Modern 132 We recognize that possibility in every work of slum-clearance and housing reform. 1953E. Smith Guide to English Traditions & Public Life 133 The necessity of slum⁓clearance had to be faced. 1961L. Mumford City in History viii. 220 Such systematic slum clearance projects as Nero's great fire naturally increased the housing shortage. 1979Punch 28 Nov. 1032/3 Ms Greer..does not establish much that is positive; but she has performed a monumental work of intellectual slum-clearance.
1934‘R. Crompton’ William—the Gangster viii. 177 They were all lofty and spacious enough to satisfy the most determined and particular of slum clearers.
1977Listener 28 Apr. 531/1 If the developer had to pay over a slice to the slum-clearing authorities, this would allow them to rehouse the slum-dwellers.
1893Graphic 25 Mar. 298/3 The appearance of respectability..deprives him of the glamour of slumland. 1929S. Leslie Anglo-Catholic i. 10 He felt at home in the East End and refreshed..when he lay back at night and sniffed the indefinable steam of slumland. 1978D. Murphy Place Apart vi. 110, I..cycled back to slumland to spend the rest of the day with Catholic families.
1893G. B. Shaw Widowers' Houses iii. vii. 84 The worst slum landlord in London. 1931W. Holtby Poor Caroline iii. 97 There was so much to be done..slum landlords to be confronted. 1972C. Drummond Death at Bar vii. 179 A slum landlord who augmented his meagre rents in strange and unlawful ways.
1892Black & White 17 Dec. 698/1 As a discussion, with open doors, of the pros and cons of slum-landlordism..Mr Shaw's Widowers' Houses is..a very considerable piece of work. 1967Sunday Times 30 Apr. 11/1 Slum landlordism..has not been seriously curtailed.
1953Chicago Daily News 12 Sept. 3/7 Reporters..found that slumlords frequently twist Illinois' trust laws into blinds for escaping detection. 1957N.Y. Times Mag. 12 May 36/3 The landlord had bitterly protested..that he was not a ‘slumlord’ and avowed that he was ready to put the building in condition if he could get a guarantee that it would stay that way. 1978S. Wilson Dealer's Move vii. 121 A big place in Surrey—it belonged to one of the king slum-lords.
1966Atlantic Monthly Nov. 128 Within the chivalric order of slumlordship he is a very minor vassal.
1890Guardian 31 Dec. 2096/1 This ‘slum-sister’ gathers children for instruction on Sunday afternoons.
II.
†5.
a. Nonsensical talk or writing; gammon, blarney. Also, gipsy jargon or cant. Obs.
1812P. Egan Boxiana i. 122 The flowing harangue of some dusty cove..lavish with his slum on the beauties possessed by some distinguished pugilist. 1820in Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (1823) s.v., And thus, without more slum, began..To settle..The rigs of this here tip-top nation. 1822J. Wilson Noctes Ambros. iv, He may have written some pretty things, but he is taken now to slum, scissorsing, namby pamby, and is quite spoiled. 1823Bee Dict. Turf s.v., The gipsey language, or cant, is slum. Ibid., Loose, ridiculous talk, is ‘all slum’. ‘None of your slum,’ is said by a girl to a blarneying chap.
b. up to slum, knowing, wideawake; not to be ‘taken in’ or ‘done’.
1857–9in Slang Dict.
c. ‘An insinuation, a discreditable inuendo.’
1865Slang Dict. 236.
6. A begging-letter.
1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 224 A slum's a paper fake. Ibid. 311 Of these documents there are two sorts, ‘slums’ (letters) and ‘fakements’ (petitions).
7. ‘A chest or package’ (Slang Dict. 1859).
8. N. Amer.
a. Cheap or imitation jewellery. Also as adj. Criminals' slang.
1914Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 77 Slum, jewelry of any description, but lately reduced in scope of meaning to include only the less valuable kinds of jewelry... ‘He's got a bale of slum for sloughings.’ 1924G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 418 Slum, plated jewelry. 1931Amer. Speech VII. 102 Nail the stones but blow the slum. 1946S. S. Jacobs in Mag. Digest Aug. 89/2 A guy buys a slum ring for ten cents. 1955Publ. Amer. Dialect Soc. xxiv. 122 Any kind of jewelry, usually exclusive of watches, was—and still is—referred to as slum. 1962‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed vii. 53 Jewellery... Top stuff. No slum.
b. Cheap prizes at a fair, carnival, etc.
1929Sat. Even. Post 19 Oct. 26/2 Business Opportunities hammer at every door in the advertising columns of this trade paper. Slum, 1008 pieces for tie pins, collar pins, brooches, cigarette holders, rings, $695 the lot. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) i. 5 The slum prizes dripped from their hands, taffy, teddy-bears, streamers of paper.
Hence ˈslumism [-ism], the existence of slums; the deprivations and other ills associated with or characteristic of life in the slums.
1967Britannica Bk. of Year 1966 804/2 Slumism, the existence of highly congested urban residential areas characterized by deteriorated unsanitary buildings, poverty, and social disorganization. 1967Harper's Mag. Feb. 83 We must show the same unhesitating commitment to fighting slumism, poverty, ignorance, prejudice, and unemployment that we show to fighting Communism. 1971L. Chester Martin Luther King xi. 262 We are victims of slumism!
▪ II. slum, n.2 U.S.|slʌm|
[? ad. G. schlamm in the same sense.]
= slime n. 4.
1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Min. 350 The discharge near the top carries off light particles and slums. 1877Ibid. 97 This material..is like the slum or tailings from a mill.
▪ III. slum, n.3 slang.
[App. abbrev. of slumgullion.]
1. = slumgullion 2 c.
1847J. Mitchell Reminisc. College 117 Though the son of Vulcan found the pork and cabbage harmless, I am sure that slum would have been a match for him. 1865‘Mark Twain’ Notebook 28 Jan. (1935) i. 6 Chili-beans and dish-water three times today as usual and some kind of ‘slum’ which the Frenchman called ‘hash’. 1898E. H. Blatchford Let. 17 July (1920) 37 Beef stew, commonly known as slum. 1918Stars & Stripes 5 Apr. 4 Everyone knows that there are at least three different kinds of slum—the watered kind, the more solid variety and the occasional special sort that wears a pie-crust. The Marines describe these three types in sea-lingo: ‘slum with the tide in’, ‘slum with the tide out’, and ‘slum with an overcoat’. 1972J. M. Minifie Homesteader xx. 182 There would be white table-cloths and sparkling glass and silver, instead of a mess-tin of slum on a dirty table in barracks.
2. Special Combinations. slum burner, an army cook; slum gun, a field-kitchen.
1930Our Army Aug. 33 The..cook..is a ‘slum-burner’. 1943M. Hargrove See here, Private Hargrove xlii. 118 Oscar of the Waldorf, in the Army, would still be..a slum-burner.
1917R. Batchelder Watching & Waiting on Border vii. 90 The regiment owned a field⁓kitchen, or ‘slum-gun’, a bulky vehicle in which food might be prepared on the march. 1947D. Runyon Poems for Men 213 Our slum-gun busted down.
▪ IV. slum
variant of sloom n.1 and n.2
▪ V. slum, v.|slʌm|
[Cf. slum n.1]
1. trans. Cant. (See quots.)
1859Slang Dict. 96 Slum the gorger, to cheat on the sly, to be an eye servant. 1874Ibid. 297 Slum, to hide, to pass to a confederate.
2. a. To do (work) hurriedly and carelessly.
1865Daily Telegr. 25 Aug., The builders were not men to ‘slum’ or ‘scamp’ their work.
b. intr. (See quot. 1965.) Also trans., to shear (a sheep, etc.) in this manner. Austral. Sheep-shearing.
1965J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Industry ii. 24 A shearer slums if he works as fast as he can, and perhaps carelessly, while the pen is full, and thus takes a large proportion of the easy sheep. 1966J. Carter People of Inland (1967) xvii. 165 Then at shearing time, these same ‘guns’ can slum pen after pen of fine, clean sheep, because the opportunity to set a new record has presented itself.
3. intr.
a. To go into, or frequent, slums for discreditable purposes; ‘to saunter about, with a suspicion, perhaps, of immoral pursuits’.
a1860in Oxford use. 1865Slang Dict. (as Cambridge Univ. slang).
b. ‘To keep to back streets to avoid observation’ (Barrère and Leland, 1897).
4. a. To visit slums for charitable or philanthropic purposes, or out of curiosity, esp. as a fashionable pursuit. Also with it. Freq. in phr. to go slumming (see slumming vbl. n. 2).
1884Referee 22 June (Cassell), A wealthy lady went slumming through the Dials the other day. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 A party of young fashionable people of New York thought they would go a slumming. 1887Good Words 238 He had taken tea hundreds of times in workmen's houses; he had ‘slummed’ so far back as 1846. 1899W. James Let. 8 Feb. (1920) II. 88 Kipling knows perfectly well that our camps in the tropics are not college settlements or our armies bands of philanthropists, slumming it.
b. To accept, temporarily and voluntarily, a standard (of living, travel, etc.) lower than that to which one is accustomed; to mix with one's inferiors. Freq. as pres. pple. and with it. Also fig.
1928E. Wallace Gunner xxiii. 192 ‘What are you doing down here?’ ‘Slumming,’ said Gunner Hayes coolly. ‘I like now and again to establish contact with the underworld.’ 1944N. Coward Middle East Diary 95 We quite enjoyed slumming it in the ordinary pullman. 1946R. G. Collingwood Idea of Hist. iv. 145 It is necessary to go slumming among the most unsavoury relics of third⁓rate historical work. 1951E. Coxhead One Green Bottle ii. 57 He isn't quite a professor yet. She's just slumming till he becomes one. 1959Ann. Reg. 1958 192 Mr Rockefeller, as he slummed it in New York in the battle with his fellow millionaire the Democratic Mr Harriman. 1978P. Porter Cost of Seriousness 35 On its dorsal, a monster is drumming Messages for the new world—each wraith Is a spirit of old Europe slumming. 1981Birds Autumn 68/1 It [sc. a brambling] was quite unabashed by the proximity of the feeding area to the back door and was happily ‘slumming it’ with the resident sparrows, chaffinches and greenfinches. |