skid row


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skid row

1. A squalid area of poverty and destitution, typically inhabited by those suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction. When they hosted the Olympics, the city was criticized for rounding up the homeless and keeping them all contained on skid row.
2. A life marked by poverty and squalid circumstances. It's amazing that, after nearly five years on skid row, he's now one of the biggest names in show business.
See also: row, skid
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

skid row

A squalid district inhabited by derelicts and vagrants; also, a life of impoverished dissipation. For example, That part of town is our skid row, or His drinking was getting so bad we thought he was headed for skid row. This expression originated in the lumber industry, where it signified a road or track made of logs laid crosswise over which logs were slid. Around 1900 the name Skid Road was used for the part of a town frequented by loggers, which had many bars and brothels, and by the 1930s the variant skid row, with its current meaning, came into use.
See also: row, skid
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

(on) skid ˈrow

(informal, especially American English) people who are on skid row live in a very poor part of town where there are many social problems: When he went bankrupt he lost everything, and ended up living on skid row for a few years. OPPOSITE: on easy streetThis expression came from the phrase skid road, referring to the poor part of towns where loggers (= people who cut down trees or cut and transported wood) lived. Originally a skid road was a road made of large pieces of wood, used for moving logs to the mill.
See also: row, skid
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

skid row

n. the name for a place populated with ruined alcoholics and other down-and-out people. Just because they’re on skid row, it doesn’t mean they’re beyond help.
See also: row, skid
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

skid row, on

Destitute, down-and-out. The term comes from the American lumber industry, where it first signified a skidway down which felled logs were slid. In time the part of a town frequented by loggers, which abounded in taverns and brothels, was called Skid Road. In the mid-twentieth century it again became “skid row” and was applied to any area of cheap barrooms and rundown hotels frequented by vagrants and alcoholics.
See also: on, skid
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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References in periodicals archive ?
As part of his data collection, Stuart primarily interacted with four groups of Skid Row residents: men who lifted weights together in a park, informal street vendors, LACAN activists, and LAPD officers.
Forrest Stuart. Down, Out, & Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row
Caption: Tents set up by homeless people sit in front of a building on Skid Row Feb.
An oasis on Skid Row: essays capture the texture of catholic worker life
"People outside of skid row now know what we've been saying for years," said Jeff Page, a skid row activist and resident.
Homeless man shot dead by LAPD had served time for bank robbery
To avoid lapsing into bland celebration, or theater-as-therapy, LAPD trains its attention on Skid Row's internal conflicts and external pressures.
Los Angeles Poverty Department
The term "Skid Row" has come to denote a district in the city where there is a concentration of substandard hotels and rooming houses charging very low rates and catering primarily to men with low incomes.
Homelessness in the U.S.: a historical analysis
Fine singing, too, from the six Skid Row girls and the chorus of a fine show in which Oliver Rowe is director and musical director.
Rock musical still bloody good fun; REVIEW
Skid Row, with its poverty and large homeless population, could not stand in starker contrast to the more glitzy part of town where the couple had attended a Bafta reception on Saturday.
Royals fly home after a packed last day
HE STARTED his music career at the tender age of 16, strumming for Irish band Skid Row, and would go on to find world fame with legendary rock band Thin Lizzy.
obituary
Covering topics from blackouts to wine tourism and fermentation to skid row this encyclopedia provides information not only about varieties of liquors and popular drinks but also about movie stars, songs and other subjects related alcohol in the American cultural landscape.
Alcohol in popular culture; an encyclopedia
"Murder on Skid Row" tells the story of Mel Greenburg, an optimistic dentist who tries to make a difference in Chicago's seedy skid row.
Helen's Bookshelf
Mark Ruffalo plays Father Joe, a priest running a soup kitchen on Skid Row in Los Angeles.
Sympathy for Delicious
Adapted from a memoir by journalist Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.), The Soloist casts Foxx as Nathaniel Avers, a homeless schizophrenic living among I he other lost souls on Los Angeles's infamous Skid Row. As a young man, Nathaniel possessed a singular skill for music, which won him admission to Juilliard.
The soloist: Jamie Foxx links with Robert Downey Jr. to tackle homelessness, mental illness and a musical dream deferred
In a career that dates back to the 60s, Moore has graced the line-ups of several notable rock bands including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II and Skid Row, to name but three, and to this day maintains a highly successful solo career.
Gary Moore Toon date
Lopez had at first dismissed the idea of a movie -- as well as a book -- when producers began calling him after his columns about Ayers' passion to play music and his life on Skid Row began appearing in 2005.
How Columnist's 'Soloist' Made the Journey to the Big Screen -- Starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr
STOCKTON'S Georgian Theatre will tonight play host to an evening with great songwriter TOM RUSSELL, who went from playing in the strip bars along skid row in Vancouver to having his songs covered by Johnny Cash and Nanci Griffiths.
Sound Bites; Music
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