Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a room; usu. defined by a descriptive n.

1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: Knocked down upon the slum, a place of confinement.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 161: We may have ‘the little slum,’ or ‘the great slum;’ ‘a dirty slum,’ ‘a pretty slum;’ ‘the back slum,’ and ‘a slum in front.’.
1824		History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 28: The back parlor (vulgo slum,) of an extremely low-bred Irish Widow.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 115: This slum must be our rendezvous.

2. a chest or box.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 96: Slum, [...] a chest or packet.

3. a shop; usu. defined by a descriptive n.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 64/1: Joe proposed that we should join partnership and open a cigar ‘slum’. [Ibid.] 109/1: His supply of ‘chuck’ (strong pigs’ cheek, very strong greens and potatoes, procured from the threepenny-feed ‘slum’ in Buckeridge street, St. Giles). [Ibid.] 126/2: May I be ‘lagged’ iv theiy doant meen pinchin’ o’ sumboddy owre that ‘cady slum’ wat wi fixed.

4. used as a general descriptor of any inanimate object, large or small.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 57: schikster: Did you fake the slum, cully, last darky? gonniff: Faked it rumbo: copped the lob, darked the hommo of the cassey, and scarpered with the swag, bona. schikster: What’s the slums of the swag? gonniff: Oh, all sorts of slums; prickers and chives, suppers and spreaders, fawney and fogles, tickers and droppers – every mortal nation slum vot ought to be in a crib.
1855		‘Joskin’s Vocab.’ in Yokel’s Preceptor 30: A Slum, Anything you see: A spoon; A knife; A rope; A house etc.

5. (UK Und.) ‘a low drinking-place’ (Matsell).

1859

Matsell Vocabulum.

6. a back-alley.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 32: Slum n. Dark alley. Gen.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 152: I was jogging down a blooming slum in the Chapel when I butted a reefer who was sporting a red slang.