BARBARY COAST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Barbary Coast

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/bˈɑrbəri koʊst/ Listen

Barbary Coast

noun

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).

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

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Etymology of 'Barbary Coast'

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"Barbary coast" Quotes from Famous Books

... now four general routes followed by the trading caravans from the Barbary coast, leading to four different points of that great belt of populous country that stretches across Central Africa,—viz. to Wadai, ...

— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson

... pirate. Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian shipping under ...

— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian shipping under ...

— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... got me aboard her. I'll tell you how it was. One evening late I was just coming out of a dark alley on the Barbary Coast, San Francisco. You know—the water front, where you can hear more tongues than at Port Said, see stranger sights, and meet adventure with the joyous certainty of mediaeval times. I'd been down there hunting up a man reported, by ...

— The Mystery • Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams

... few days at Gibraltar, where the rest of the squadron were then at anchor; and then sailed with all of them in company to Naples. During the remainder of the year 1816 the ship cruised along the Barbary coast until the winter had fairly set in, when she with the other vessels repaired to Port Mahon. Although now so close to the spot where his race originated, Farragut's journal betrays no interest in the fact. He was still too young ...

— Admiral Farragut • A. T. Mahan