DCHP-3

skid row

[alteration of skidroad]
Slang
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

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

Quotations

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.

Quotations

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