Obsolete British slang for a cheap lodging house or dosshouse, combining 'dossing' (sleeping or lodging cheaply) with 'ken' (thieves' cant for a house or dwelling). The term belongs to the vocabulary of 19th-century street life and vagabond culture. It is now entirely historical.
After three nights in a dossing-ken off the Seven Dials, he was desperate for a real bed.
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(obsolete, slang) A dosshouse; a cheap inn.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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