rookery

Noun

rookery (plural rookeries)

1. A colony of breeding birds or other animals.
   • It was a rookery which had never been raided by the hunters, and in consequence the seals were mild-tempered and at the same time unafraid.1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
   • In winter rooks roost together in large numbers, and the roost may or may not be a rookery, but almost daily the local residents pay visits to the nesting trees, and about this time often begin playing at nest-building.1914 February 2, “Corvine conversation in Cheshire rookery”, in The Guardian
2. (broadly) A crowded tenement.
   • Lord John Roxton and I turned down Vigo Street together and through the dingy portals of the famous aristocratic rookery.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
   • Spying flames vomiting from a Manhattan tenement one night last week, a scavenging junkman named Roderick Good turned in an alarm. In their beds in the five-story rookery lay more than 100 tenants.1934 April 2, “Business: Tenements”, in Time, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2012
3. (UK, broadly, historical) A place where criminals congregate, often an area of a town or city.
   • The Flower and Dean St rookery had been home to many of those who lived at least partly by street crime.1980, Jerry White, Rothschild Buildings: life in an East End tenement block, 1887-1920, page 128
   • These rookeries sustained criminal social systems that provided schooling in crime for the young and newcomers.1995, Cyrille Fijnaut, Changes in Society, Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe

   Synonyms:

   slum

4. (obsolete, slang) That part of the barracks occupied by subalterns.