Skid row

Skid row is an American expression that can mean either destitute or impoverished or it can mean a specific impoverished district of a town or city, row being a 15th century word for street. The expression dates from the Great Depression of the 1930s and ‘on the skids’, meaning much the same thing, dates from the same period. The origin of the ‘skid’ part derives from the logging industry in North West American where ‘skid’ roads were makeshift roads made of transverse logs down which logs would ‘skid’ into rivers. The first citation for skid roads is 1880. Out-of-work loggers would gather around these skid roads hoping for employment and thus the association with being down and out developed.