ghetto passn.
/ˈɡɛtəʊ pɑːs/, /ˈɡɛtəʊ pas/, U.S. /ˈɡɛdoʊ ˌpæs/ 1. In Nazi Germany and European countries under Nazi control: an identity document issued to people who lived or worked in a Jewish ghetto, which restricted movement in and out of the area and had to be produced on demand. historical.
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1969 in tr. W. Bartoszewski & Z. Lewin Righteous among Nations vi. 198 The German authorities issued temporary ghetto passes to Poles who frequented the area on legitimate utilities services or for enterprises working for the Germans.
1990 J. Michalowicz tr. A. Tory Surviving Holocaust 120 Beginning on August 5, 1942, each Ghetto inhabitant will have an identity card—a Ghetto pass.
2011 T. Cole Traces of Holocaust v. 72 Local officials drew up a generic ghetto pass on 23 May [1944] allowing the holder to leave only through the Széchényi utca gate and to travel by the most direct route.
2. Something which confers recognition or acceptance within inner-city African-American or hip-hop culture as being credible, authentic, or in tune with the values of that culture.Originally and chiefly as part of an extended metaphor.
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1991 ‘Ice Cube’ True to Game (transcribed from song) in Death Certificate Give something back to the place where you made it from Before you end up broke. Fuck around, and get your ghetto pass revoked.
2002 Gear May 78/1 Dr. Dre is largely responsible for co-signing Eminem's ‘ghetto pass’—making sure he came off as ‘real’ and not as some latter-day Vanilla Ice.
2021 @Uncle_Lou2U 11 Feb. in twitter.com (accessed 9 Apr. 2021) Every Black person 25 and up should recognize this song. If not, I'm coming to confiscate your ghetto pass.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2022).
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n.1969