gentrifyv.
/ˈdʒɛntrᵻfʌɪ/, U.S. /ˈdʒɛntrəˌfaɪ/ 1. transitive. To turn (a person) into a member of the gentry; (also) to make (a person, a way of life, etc.) more refined, polite, or respectable.
ΚΠ
1850 S. Laing Observ. Social & Polit. State European People xvii. 461 In reality, many of our nominal gentry are only persons of wealth suddenly gentrified.
1963 F. M. L. Thompson Eng. Landed Society 19th Cent. v. 121 From the end of the 1820s..the new rich would find fewer ready-made estates on the market than had been usual in the eighteenth century, and would thus be forced back on the more laborious and increasingly difficult task of gentrifying themselves at the expense of an ever-contracting supply of smaller properties.
1988 Economist 12 Mar. 46/2 In preparation for his presidential campaign the leader of France's far-right National Front..was advised to gentrify his image.
2015 Kalgoorlie (W. Austral.) Miner (Nexis) 2 Feb. 7 Mrs Bucket..endeavours to gentrify herself by pronouncing her name as bouquet.
2.
a. transitive. Typically of wealthy people: to renovate, improve, and occupy (housing, esp. in a poor urban area); to change the character of (an area) by improving housing and so attracting new businesses.Gentrifying housing or an area typically results in the displacement of poorer residents.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [verb (transitive)] > gentrify
gentrify1972
1972 J. I. M. Stewart Palace of Art i. 11 The humbler dwellings..were well-groomed rather than neat, and their little gardens had been gentrified as effectively as had their low parlours.
1985 Observer 29 Dec. 20/8 Accountants and graphic designers busily gentrifying the shell-shocked terraces are just as hungry for pleasure.
2018 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 10 Apr. a6 A profitable luxury building that will gentrify the neighborhood, raising rent for residents and local businesses.
b. intransitive. Of an area, esp. an inner-city neighbourhood: to undergo gentrification; to become middle-class.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [verb (intransitive)] > of an area: gentrify
gentrify1981
1981 A. Thompson Inner City Differentiation (PhD. diss., Ohio State Univ.) i. 31 Not all central city neighborhoods are gentrifying.
1993 I. L. Allen City in Slang ix. 234 Today, Hell's Kitchen is gentrifying and the tenements are becoming co-ops or being replaced by corporate skyscrapers.
2015 Evening Standard (Nexis) 7 Apr. 20 House prices seem to go up and up and west London, where we lived, has gentrified even further in recent years.
Derivatives
ˈgentrifier n. a person who renovates or converts housing so that it conforms to middle-class taste; (also) a middle-class person who moves into a particular area, contributing to its change of demographic (see note at sense 2a).
ΚΠ
1973 Area 5 253 These [improvement] grants..are relatively restricted to the more affluent, i.e. to the individual gentrifier or to the property developer.
2010 B. M. Wiprud Buy Back iv. 15 Hipsters were the newcomers, gentrifiers, the ones who commuted to Manhattan and drove up the real estate prices.
ˈgentrifying adj. (a) that makes an area more middle class; (b) of an area: that is becoming more middle class.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [adjective] > gentrifying
gentrifying1977
1977 Evening Standard 29 Apr. 8/4 The ‘spoilers’ in the urban mosaic of Islington are the borough's growing population of ‘intellectuals’ and ‘trendies’ who are now spreading their ‘gentrifying’ tentacles through even the borough's most decrepit areas.
1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Sept. (Final ed.) a1 Residents of the quickly gentrifying neighborhood near Queen and Fayette streets cheered.
2012 McGill Tribune (Nexis) 13 Feb. (Opinion section) 1 The young urban professionals that gentrifying developers cater to.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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