gentrify

Definitions


[ˈdʒɛntrɪfʌɪ], (Verb)

Definitions:
- change the character of (a poor urban area) through wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, often displacing current inhabitants in the process
(e.g: formerly bohemian districts are being gentrified)


Phrases:

Origin:
mid 19th century (in the sense ‘turn a person into a member of the gentry’): from gentry + -fy. The sense relating to the improvement of poor urban areas dates from the 1970s




definition by Oxford Dictionaries