skid row
UK/ˌskɪd ˈɹəʊ//ˌskɪd ˈɹoʊ/
skid row noun: an especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.
Noun (1)
skid row (countable and uncountable, plural skid rows)
- An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.
- A situation of great desperation or misfortune.
Noun (2) capitalized: Skid Row
Skid Row (plural Skid Rows)
- Alternative letter-case form of skid row.
Proper noun capitalized: Skid Row
Skid Row
- A neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, United States.
- A neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States.
- A neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, also called the Gateway District
- A neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States, also called the Bowery
- A neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States, also called Old Town-Chinatown
- A neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.
- A neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada called the DTES, commonly referred to as East Hastings.
Synonyms of skid row
Forms of skid row
| plural | skid rows |
|---|---|
| alternative form | skidrow |
| alternative form | Skid Row |
| plural | Skid Rows |
Origin of skid row
An alteration of skid road (“road along which logs are dragged or skidded; (Canada, US, informal) downtown streets where loggers go for recreation on their time off”). In 1852, skid road was first applied to a slum area at the loggers’ part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Over time, the variant skid row came to refer to a district or slum frequented by alcoholics and hobos, even in areas without a lumber industry.
Words formed from skid row
Words that rhyme with skid row
Questions about skid row
- What does skid row mean?
- Skid row means an especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.
- What part of speech is skid row?
- Skid row can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce skid row?
- Skid row is pronounced /ˌskɪd ˈɹəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of skid row?
- The plural of skid row is skid rows.
Words near skid row in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: skid row (page history and authors); Skid Row (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-skid row.oga.
Cite this entry: “skid row.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skid_row. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.