street

English

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Alternative forms

Alternative forms

  • streat, streate (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English streete, strete, stret, strate, from Old English strǣt (“a road, a town-road, a street, a paved road, high road”), from West Germanic *strāta (“street”), an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta (“paved (road)”), from strātus, past participle of sternō (“stretch out, spread, bestrew with, cover, pave”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to stretch out, extend, spread”). Cognate with Scots stret, strete, streit (“street”), Eastern Frisian strete (“street”), West Frisian strjitte (“street”), Dutch straat (“street”), Low German strate (“street”), German Straße (“street”), Swedish stråt (“way, path”), Icelandic stræti (“street”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese estrada (“road, way, drive”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”). More at strew.

Pronunciation

Noun

street (plural streets)

a street
  1. A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.
    Walk down the street.
  2. A road as above but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.
    I live on the street down from Joyce Avenue.
  3. The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.
  4. The people who spend a great deal of time on the street in urban areas, especially, the young, the poor, the unemployed, and those engaged in illegal activities.
  5. (slang) Street talk or slang.
    • 2008, Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady, Hamlet 2, Focus Features
      Toaster is street for guns.
  6. (figuratively) a large amount
    He's streets ahead of his sister in all the subjects in school.
    • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France [1]
      England were once again static in their few attacks, only Tuilagi's bullocking runs offering any threat, Flood reduced to aiming a long-range drop-goal pit which missed by a street.
  7. (poker slang) Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river.
  8. Illicit, contraband, especially of a drug
    I got some pot cheap on the street.

Usage notes

  • (paved part of road): (Regional) The term street is used with the preposition in. Something is in the street, but in or on the road. To be "on the street" means to be living an insecure life, often one associated with homelessness or crime. To "hear something on the street" means to learn about something through rumor.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

compounds formed from street (noun)
common nouns using street (noun)
proper and other capitalized nouns form using street (noun)

Translations

paved part of road in a village or a town

Adjective

street (comparative more street, superlative most street)

  1. (slang) Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends.
    • 2003, Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill, James P. Baen, Mad Maudlin
      Eric had to admit that she looked street—upscale street, but still street. Kayla's look tended to change with the seasons; at the moment it was less Goth than paramilitary, with laced jump boots.

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Last modified on 19 May 2013, at 23:46