Word.ws English Dictionary

Gunchester

Gunchester proper noun: the English city of Manchester, particularly Moss Side, referring to the city's historical high gun crime rate.

Proper noun

Gunchester

  1. (UK, derogatory, informal) The English city of Manchester, particularly Moss Side, referring to the city's historical high gun crime rate.
    • ″You hear people firing off guns all the time,″ she said. ″That’s why they call it Gunchester. I just thought some poor bugger’s got it again, and went on sudsing my hair.″1993 November 15, Shawn Pogatchnik, “‘Gunchester’: A Dead Son and Shooting in the Street With AM-Guns Invade Britain, Bjt”, in Associated Press
    • The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has said that the city has finally shrugged off its notorious Gunchester image thanks to their intensive efforts to combat gangs.2011 April 11, Helen Carter, “Farewell to Gunchester”, in The Guardian

Examples of Gunchester in a sentence

  • Throughout the 1970s and 80s, gang violence increased, which earned the area [Moss Side] the nickname of "gunchester".2018 August 13, Imran Rahman-Jones, “Moss Side: A history of the Manchester neighbourhood”, in BBC:
  • Manchester earned its name Gunchester in the 1980s and 1990s but violence came to a head when Benji Stanley, 14, was shot dead at a takeaway.2021 March 21, Emily Retter, “Inside 'Gunchester': The brutal blowtorch-armed gangs running riot in Manchester”, in Daily Star:

Origin of Gunchester

Blend of gun + Manchester.

Questions about Gunchester

What does Gunchester mean?
Gunchester means the English city of Manchester, particularly Moss Side, referring to the city's historical high gun crime rate.
How do you use Gunchester in a sentence?
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, gang violence increased, which earned the area [Moss Side] the nickname of "gunchester".
What part of speech is Gunchester?
Gunchester is a proper noun.

Words near Gunchester in the dictionary

  1. guncase
  2. guncentric
  3. gunch
  4. gunched
  5. gunches
  6. Gunchester
  7. gunching
  8. guncle
  9. guncles
  10. guncotton
  11. guncottons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gunchester (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Gunchester.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gunchester. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.