ghetto UK /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/US /ˈɡɛ.toʊ/adjective 4noun 4verb 1forms 8phrases 2 adjective4 •Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.Those residing in ghetto communities were particularly ill equipped to adapt to the seismic changes taking place in the U.S. economy; they were left isolated and jobless. — 2012 •(informal, slang) Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.My apartment's so ghetto, the rats and cockroaches filed a complaint with the city!I like to drive ghetto cars; if they break down you can just abandon them and pick up a new one! •Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States. •(informal, offensive) Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.You're the one that grew up in the suburbs and you act way more ghetto than I do.” “I am not ghetto.” Val said in an English accent and broke out laughing. — 2007 noun4 •An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)[…] concentrating the Jewish community into ghettoes. The Germans not only started the ghettoes, but they had also opened a concentration camp […] — 2010 •An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.Charlestown would also become one of Boston's three large Irish ghettoes. — 1998 •An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.The student ghetto, southwest of the centre, is inside the triangle formed by [three streets] and is full of open-air bars, internet cafés, fast-food shops — and students. — 2007 •(figurative) An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.Invent is undoubtedly the wrong word, but the push from government was crucial in getting the Internet out of its academic ghetto. — 2012 verb1 •To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.This is, in brief, a part of the story of the ghettoing of a large segment of Denver's Negro population. — 1964 formsghettoed · ghettoing · ghettoes · ghetti · ghettos · more ghetto · ghettoest · most ghetto Phrases with ghetto ghetto birdA police helicopter, specifically in the context of patrolling or searching impoverished, high-crime urban areas (the ghetto). ghetto lotteryA financial windfall obtainable by a socioeconomically disadvantaged person.
