ghetto

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, or social background, often because of discrimination.
2. n. An often walled quarter in a European city to which Jews were restricted beginning in the Middle Ages.
3. n. Something that resembles the restriction or isolation of a city ghetto: "trapped in ethnic or pink-collar managerial job ghettoes” ( Diane Weathers).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The quarter in certain Italian towns in which Jews were formerly compelled to live exclusively.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.)
2. n. An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.
3. n. An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.
4. adj. Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.
5. adj. slang, informal Of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.
6. adj. US, informal Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.
7. adj. Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.
8. v. To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A quarter of a city where Jews live in greatest numbers.
2. n. Any section of a town inhabited predominantly by members of a specific ethnic, national or racial group, such segregation usually arising from social or economic pressure. The term is commonly applied to areas in cities having a high concentration of low-income African-Americans.
3. n. Any isolated group of people.
4. n. Any group isolated by external pressures, with an implication of inferiority.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live
2. n. a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions
3. n. any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping