# street

Pronunciation: say "STREET" US /stɹit/, UK /stɹiːt/

## Noun

1. A public road in a city, town, or village, together with the sidewalks and buildings that usually line it.
   - Simple: A road in a town or city, usually with houses, shops, or other buildings along its sides.
   - _The entire street smelled of fresh bread from the corner bakery._
   - _City planners want to make the street more friendly to pedestrians._
2. In a grid street plan, the roads that run perpendicular to the avenues. *(US)*
   - Simple: In a city grid, the roads that cross the avenues at right angles.
   - _In the city grid, every street meets the avenues at ninety degrees._
   - _The numbered streets run crosstown, perpendicular to the long avenues._
3. Short for Wall Street: the US financial markets and the banks and people who work in them. — Ellipsis of Wall Street.
   - Simple: Short form of Wall Street. It means the U.S. stock market and the people who trade and work there.
   - _The Street shrugged off the gloomy forecast and rallied by noon._
   - _Few on the Street predicted such a sharp sell-off._
4. People in general, regarded as a source of information or opinion. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Ordinary people seen as a source of news or opinions.
   - _Pollsters wanted to know what the street was saying about the scandal._
   - _The word on the street was that the band would get back together this summer._
5. Life lived largely on a city's streets, and the people who live it, especially the homeless, the poor, and those involved in gangs, drugs, or crime; often 'the streets'.
   - Simple: Life in the poor, rough parts of a city, such as being homeless or in gangs, and the people living it.
   - _The street has its own code, and outsiders rarely learn it._
   - _Charities working with the homeless know the street better than any official report._
6. An illegal or black-market source, especially one for drugs.
   - Simple: An illegal source where things like drugs can be bought.
   - _The drug sells for twice its pharmacy price on the street._
   - _Without insurance, he started buying his pain pills on the street._
8. Informal slang used by streetwise people in urban settings. *(slang)*
   - Simple: The slang spoken by people on city streets.
   - _Half the lyrics are pure street, baffling to anyone over forty._
   - _She slipped into street the moment she left the office._
9. The people who live along a particular road, considered together as a neighborhood.
   - Simple: All the people who live along one road, seen together as a group.
   - _The street rallied to help the family after the fire._
   - _A new café opened, and the entire street turned up to celebrate._
10. A great distance or margin, used figuratively to stress how far ahead something is.
   - Simple: A very large amount, used to say that something is far ahead of the rest.
   - _In the polls she remained streets ahead of every other candidate._
   - _As a cook, she is streets ahead of anyone else in the family._
11. A style of skateboarding that uses urban features such as stairs, rails, and ledges as obstacles.
   - Simple: A kind of skateboarding done on stairs, rails, and other things found in cities.
   - _She prefers street to vert because she loves grinding handrails._
   - _Most of his footage is pure street, filmed on city stairways._

## Adjective

7. Showing street cred; in line with current urban fashion and trends. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Cool and in tune with modern city style and trends.
   - _The label built its image around a street aesthetic that teenagers loved._
   - _His new look reads as effortlessly street._

## Verb

12. To defeat an opponent heavily, by a wide margin.
   - Simple: To beat someone very easily, by a large amount.
   - _The champions streeted their rivals in the final._
   - _A well-drilled squad can street weaker opposition with ease._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To go on sale; to be released for people to purchase.
- (verb) To eject someone from a building; to force them out onto the streets.
- (verb) To build or equip an area with streets.
- (noun) In poker, any of the rounds of dealing and betting in a hand, such as the flop, the turn, or the river in hold'em.
- (verb) To preach or promote a faith publicly, especially to people passing by in the streets.

## Origin

From Middle English strete, from Old English strēt, from Proto-West Germanic *strātu, an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta meaning "paved (road)." This came from Latin strātus, the past participle of sternō ("to stretch out, spread, pave"), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to stretch out, extend, spread." It is related to words like German Straße and Dutch straat.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/street (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).