subs. (old and thieves’).—1. Nonsense; a trick; a swindle: e.g., a sham begging letter, a roll of ‘snide’ notes, &c. Hence UP TO SLUM = knowing, not to be HAD (q.v.); TO FAKE THE SLUM = to do the trick. 2 (old) = idle talk (see quots. 1821 and 1823). As verb. = (1) to trick, to cheat; and (2) to talk idly, or to speak slang.
1820. P. EGAN, Jack Randall’s Diary, p. 22. And thus, without more SLUM, began.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. SLUM—loose ridiculous talk is all SLUM! ‘None of your SLUM’ is said by a girl to a blarneying chap…. The gypsy language, or cant, is SLUM.… Dutch Sam excelled in SLUMMERY—‘Willus youvus givibus glasso ginibus.’
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. That was his leading slum, and pretty well he sponged them too. Ibid. (1856), The Great World of London, 46. Screevers or the writers of SLUMS and fakements.
2. (old).—Originally a room [GROSE: also see quots. 1823, s.v. sense 1 and infra]. Also 3 (modern) = a squalid street or neighbourhood; a ROOKERY (q.v.): usually in pl. with ‘back.’ As verb. = (1) to explore poor quarters out of curiosity or charity; 2 (university) to keep to back streets to avoid observation; and 3 (common) to keep in the background.
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, ii. 3. Let’s have a dive amongst the cadgers in the back SLUMS in the Holy Land.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. SLUM … also the room in which persons meet who talk in that style [see sense 1]; thus we may have ‘the little SLUM,’ or ‘the great SLUM,’ ‘a dirty SLUM,’ or ‘a pretty SLUM,’ ‘the back SLUM,’ and a SLUM in front. Derived from slumber, to sleep, the molls and coves napping nine winks at those places.
1872. W. BLACK, The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton, xviii. When one gets clear of the suburban SLUMS and the smoke of Liverpool, a very respectable appearance of real country-life becomes visible.
1884. Referee, 22 June. A wealthy lady went SLUMMING through the Dials the other day.
1885. Echo, 8 Sept. There is little in the author’s observations on SLUMS and SLUM LIFE that has not been said before.
d. 1894. YATES, London Life, I. ii. Gone is the Rookery, a conglomeration of SLUMS and alleys in the heart of St. Giles’s.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 74. It was really a SLUM, where the greens always hum. Ibid., 97. But it [love] wouldn’t be SLUMMED like a worm in the bud.
4. (thieves’).—A letter, a package: anything in hand.
5. (Punch and Judy).—The call; SLUM-FAKE = the coffin; SLUMMING = acting.
1872. M. E. BRADDON, Dead-Sea Fruit, xiv. The gorger’s awfully coally on his own SLUMMING, eh?
