Brewer's: Rookery

(3 syl.). Any low neighbourhood frequented by thieves and vagabonds. A person fleeced or liable to be fleeced is a pigeon, but those who prey upon these “gulls” are called rooks.

“The demolition of rookeries has not proved an efficient remedy for overcrowding.” —A. Egmont Hake: Free Trade in Capital, chap. xv.

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