combat zone
1
7.4
- noun
- /ˈkɒmbæt zoʊn/
- NSFW
:
zona de peligro
- You wouldn't want to walk alone at night in this part of the city; it's known as a combat zone because of the frequent crime.
Examples
-
The streets were filled with debris, making it look like a combat zone after the riots.
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So you can expect a lot more of this when the 'combat zone' is as broad as it is.
Blog text (4) -
You can't expect anything else in the combat zone.
-
Many Egyptians departed the Canal cities and villages to avoid the combat zone in 1967, and with the heating up of the "War of Attrition" (beginning March 1969 through summer 1970), the remaining civilian population left or was evacuated (Waterbury 1973).
Academic text (2005) -
The once peaceful neighborhood has deteriorated into a combat zone plagued by gang violence.
Synonyms
28
4.8
A place that is badly damaged and dangerous, like after fighting
6
6.1
An area of a city where many people sell sex
5
9.7
A part of a city known for crime and illegal businesses
1
7.9
An area that is dangerous because many crimes happen there
A part of Manhattan once known for crime and very poor housing in the 1800s and early 1900s
An area people jokingly say has a lot of crime
How Dangerous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'combat' (fighting) + 'zone' (an area) compositionally yield the idea of an area of conflict, so a B1 learner would likely infer a dangerous or violent area. However, the specific extended sense referring to a city district marked by vice, crime, and disorder is metaphorical and requires pragmatic inference or exposure, so the relation is partial rather than fully predictable.
Etymology
Combat zone was later used as a strong picture for parts of a city where fights, crime, and disorder happen often, as if the streets were a battlefield. So it came to mean 'a city area known for crime and danger'.