DCHP-1 Online

skid row † [alteration of skidroad] Slang

• 1 a city district characterized by cheap lodging houses, second-hand stores, low-class beer parlors and cafes, mission soup-kitchens, etc. and frequented largely by derelicts, transients, petty criminals and unskilled workers.

  See also: skidroad ((n.))  (def. 5b)  

  • 1950  There are tattoo­ing parlors, Skid Row beaneries, and you can get a haircut for a few cents.
  • 1961  Two hoboes on skidrow in Vancouver picked a paper up out of the street.
  • 1966  Toronto, New York and other large cities may have a "skid row" but any older generation native Vancouverite winces at the term when applied to our city

• 2 on skid row, down and out; in impoverished circumstances.

  • 1965  "A lot of Indians on skid row are the former pupils of church schools," I was told by an Ontario Indian leader. . . .