barrio

Definition

A municipality or subdivision of a municipality in Spanish America, and in Spain itself.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish barrio, from Arabic بَرِّيّ (barriyy, “wild”).

Example Sentences

• "In the barrio, they talked excitedly about the wood-gatherer's discovery. There was so much pushing and quibbling over details that by the time the barrio had organized itself to set out for Salug to investigate, dusk had already fallen."
• "After World War II, its prospering working-class white residents moved to other, more upscale suburban developments, and by the 1950s the area had become an isolated ethnic enclave with its own barrio gang."
• "Mr. Jones and me, stumbling through the barrio"