Hell's Kitchen

Proper noun

Hell's Kitchen

1. A neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, also known as Clinton, that was historically known for poor living conditions.
   • They were living someplace in Hell's Kitchen, because that's where the blacks were at that time, before they started moving up, and uptown.2008, Charles Rangel, And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress, Macmillan, →ISBN
   • Her first assignment was Hell's Kitchen, the infamous violent Manhattan neighborhood with the name that bespoke its environment, and San Juan Hill, the area just above West 59th Street, and on the northern edge of Hell's Kitchen.2015, Tanya Hart, Health in the City: Race, Poverty, and the Negotiation of Women’s Health in New York City, 1915–1930, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 86

   Synonyms:

   Clinton, HK

2. (broadly) Any neighborhood with a reputation for poverty and crime.