A mainly residential district of Manhattan; became a home for many writers and artists in the 20th century; Also called: Village.
In New York City, a section of lower Manhattan (from 14th Street south to Houston Street and from Broadway west to the Hudson River), which from the late 19th century became the bohemian and artistic quarter of the city and, despite expensive rentals, remains so.
More generally, its name suggests the spirit of avant-gardism and political radicalism in US culture; it is variously associated with left-wing causes, sexual liberation, experimental art and theater, and new magazines and movements. This attitude caused the adjoining section of the Lower East Side, east of Broadway, now far more outrageous than “the Village”, to be called the East Village.