BARBARY COAST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Barbary Coast mean? 

• BARBARY COAST (noun)
  The noun BARBARY COAST has 2 senses:

1. a part of a city that is notorious for gambling dens and brothels and saloons and riotous night life (especially the waterfront of San Francisco after the gold rush of 1849)

2. the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa that was famous for its Moorish pirates

  Familiarity information: BARBARY COAST used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BARBARY COAST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A part of a city that is notorious for gambling dens and brothels and saloons and riotous night life (especially the waterfront of San Francisco after the gold rush of 1849)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

we'll tolerate no Barbary Coast in this city!

Hypernyms ("Barbary Coast" is a kind of...):

city district (a district of a town or city)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The Mediterranean coast of northern Africa that was famous for its Moorish pirates

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

coast; sea-coast; seacoast; seashore (the shore of a sea or ocean)

Holonyms ("Barbary Coast" is a part of...):

Barbary (a region of northern Africa on the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Gibraltar; was used as a base for pirates from the 16th to 19th centuries)

 Context examples 

A few days later he took him to Duluth and bought him a blue coat, six pair of white duck trousers and a yachting cap. And when the Tuolomee left for the West Indies and the Barbary Coast Gatsby left too.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)