| 释义 |
▪ I. street, n.|striːt|
Forms: 1–2 strǽt, strét, (2–5 strate), 3 stræt(e, (stred), 3–4 stret, 3–6 strete, 4–6 strett(e, streit(e, 6 streitt, streyt(e, streat(e, 4–7 streete, 4– street.
[OE. strǽt str. fem. = OFris. strête (WFris. striette), OS. strâta, MLG., MDu. strâte (mod.Du. straat), OHG. strâz̧a (mod.G. strasse), ON. (from OE.) strǽti str. neut. (Da. stræde), MSw. strâta fem. (mod.Sw. stråt masc.) from MLG.; MSw. had also sträte fem. from OE. The word is a Com. WGer. adoption of late L. strāta (fem. pa. pple. of sternĕre to lay down, to pave: cf. stratum) used ellipt. for via strata paved road; represented in Rom. by Pr., Sp., Pg. estrada, OF. estrée, It. strada. The OIrish sráth (mod.Irish sráid, Gael. sràid) was adopted from late Latin.]
†1.
a. A paved road, a highway. Obs., but preserved in the proper names of certain ancient roads (chiefly Roman), as Watling Street, Ermine Street, Icknield Street.
Beowulf 320 Stræt wæs stanfah, stiᵹ wisode gumum ætgædere. 847Charter xx. in O.E. Texts 434 Ðonon on ða lytlan burᵹ westewearde ðonon to stræte. c1205Lay. 4839 Þat wha swa i þen stræten [c 1275 stredes] braken grið þe king him wolde bi-nimen his lif. c1250Owl & Night. 962 Wenestu þat wise men forlete Vor fule venne þe rihte strete. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 172 Fram þe souþ tilþ to þe norþ erninge stret, & fram est to þe west ykenilde stret. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 13311 He passed hilles, wode, & playn, Til þey com þer þe stret lay hey. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 105 And riȝt as syȝte serueth a man to se þe heighe strete. c1405Bidding Prayer in Lay Folks Mass Bk. (1879) 65 For thaim that brigges and stretes makes and amendes. 1564Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) 264 Being one thoroughffare towne of the Kinges strete ledyng from London to Karliel. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxvii. 98 The Male knot grasse groweth in fieldes about wayes and pathes, and in streates. 1606in N. Riding Rec. (1884) I. 50 The Kinges Mati⊇s street called Nunhouse Lane. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 397 The publike Street commonly called Watlingstreet. 1903Conrad & Hueffer Romance i. i. 5 Just beside the Roman road to Canterbury; Stone Street—the Street—we called it.
b. Used vaguely for: A road, way, path. lit. and fig. to wend one's street: to go one's way.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xiii. 4 Mið ðy saues ðorlease ᵹefeollon neh vel æt stræt vel woeᵹ [L. secus viam]. a1200Moral Ode in Lamb. Hom. 179 Laete we þe brode stret, and þe wei bene. a1300Cursor M. 6182 Ar philistiens suld wit þam mete And lett þam for to wend þair strete. a1340Hampole Psalter xxii. 3 He led me on þe stretis of rightwisnes [Vulg. super semitas iusticiæ]. a1352Minot Poems (1897) vi. 56 A bare now has him soght..Þat es ful wele bithoght To stop Philip þe strate. c1366Chaucer A.B.C. 70 Than makest thou his pees with his sovereyn, And bringest him out of the crooked strete. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 55 Tho wente he his strete, tho flewe I doun. 1535Coverdale Prov. xv. 10 He that forsaketh y⊇ right strete, shalbe sore punyshed. c1510Lyt. Geste Robin Hood 81 But as they loked in Barnysdale By a derne strete Then came there a knyght rydynge. a1547Surrey æneis ii. (1557) D j b, For while I ran by the most secret stretes..From me catif, alas, bereued was Creusa then my spouse.
c. In alliterative association with sty, stile.
c1205Lay. 16366 Bi stiȝen & by straten. a1300in Wright Anecd. Lit. (1844) 96 Love hath his stivart by sti and by strete. c1425Cast. Perseverance 353 Werldis wele, be strete & stye, Faylyth & fadyth, as fysch in flode. Ibid. 404 Cum a-gayn be strete & style! c1460Towneley Myst. ii. 365 And where so any man may me meyte, Ayther bi sty, or yit bi strete.
2. a. A road in a town or village (comparatively wide, as opposed to a ‘lane’ or ‘alley’), running between two lines of houses; usually including the side-walks as well as the carriageway. Also, the road together with the adjacent houses.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. vi. 5 Standende on ᵹe-somnungum & stræta hyrnum [L. in angulis platearum]. c1200Ormin 7358 Þurrh þatt te Kalldewisshe folc oppnedenn þeȝȝre maddmess, Nohht i þe stræte, acc i þatt hus þatt Crist wass borenn inne. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1043 Such lyȝt þer lemed in alle þe stratez Hem nedde nawþer sunne ne mone. c1382Wyclif Luke xiv. 21 Go out soone in to grete stretis and smale streetis of the citee [Vulg. in plateas et vicos civitatis]. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiv. 152 Þe stretez er paued with swilk maner of stanes. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 534 Now hath þis lord but litil neede of broomes To swepe a-way þe filthe out of þe street. c1450J. Capgrave St. Gilbert xxvii. 101 Þe smale townes had no dwelleres, þe wallis were falle down and stretes distroyed. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxxii. 37 Tailyouris, soutteris, and craftis vyll, The fairest of ȝour streitis dois fyll. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxviii. 235 They lodged in the strete next to the palays. 1575Churchyard Chippes (1817) 136 And no sooner entring the towne, but our whole powre kept themselues in order to cleere the streates and commaund the inhabitants the better. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. v. 32 My Master..sent to her seeing her go thorough the streets, to know (Sir) whether [etc.]. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. i. (1601) I 1, I slidde downe by a bottome of packthread into the streete, and so scapt. 1611Proclam. Building Lond. 3 Aug., At the least the forefront..thereof..looking towards the street or streetes [to] bee wholly built of Bricke. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 308 When they come to the crossing of a street, the Corps stayes. 1758Johnson Idler No. 53 ⁋3 A convenient house in a street. 1798Monthly Mag. Mar. 181/2 Broadway is undoubtedly the handsomest street in America. 1834Lytton Pompeii i. ii, The two young men sauntered through the streets. 1877Law Rep., 3 Exch. Div. 9 They clearly supposed they were entitled..to take the popular sense of the word ‘street,’ as meaning not only a roadway over which passengers and vehicles might pass, but also that which in popular language is part of the street, namely the houses on both sides. 1880Disraeli Endym. xv, It is the very best time for hiring a house. What I have set my heart upon is the Green Park... I am sure I could not live again in a street. 1885Act 48 Vict. c. 17 §13 The lists of voters may be made out either alphabetically or by streets. 1889Act 52 & 53 Vict. c. 44 §17 The expression ‘street’ includes any highway or other public place, whether a thoroughfare or not.
b. With prefixed word, forming the proper name of a street. Abbreviated St., st.
In early examples these appellations were originally descriptive, as in the Broad street, the high street. (In some towns, a name of this type still retains the definite article.) In modern nomenclature, the choice of the prefixed word is often arbitrary.
Modern usage is divided as to the writing of these names with hyphen or as two words. (In the 16–17th c. they were not unfrequently written as one word, e.g. ‘Limestreete’, Stow Surv. ed. 1603, p. 152.) It is to be observed that names ending in street are always stressed on the prefixed element, while those ending in road or lane have level stress: cf., e.g., ˈPark-street with ˈPark-ˈlane, ˈPark-ˈroad.
c1275in Trans. Shropsh. Archæol. Soc. Ser. i. (1878) I. 351, ij denar' annui reddit' de domo in le Brode stret q'm emi de Susanna moil. 1457Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 296 For Seynt Thomas ys stret. 1513More Rich. III Wks. 53/1 Crosbies place in Bishops-gates strete. 1531Tindale Expos. 1 John (1537) 60 Though thou were anoynted with al the oyle in teames strete. 1842Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 200 St. James's Street, at 660 feet from Piccadilly, is 1 in 27.
¶ Mars' street: mistranslation of ὁ ἄρειος πάγος Areopagus (Bible 1611 ‘Mars' Hill’).
1526Tindale Acts xvii. 19 They..brought hym into Marce strete. 1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 29 Standing in the middest of the Mars streate he [St. Paul] openly inueighed agaynst the superstition of that worthy Citye.
c. street of houses or shops: a number of houses or shops built in a double line with a road in the middle, forming a street. Also transf. as street of booths, ships.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage iv. xviii. (1614) 435 It seemed to bee, as it were, a continued street of Shippes. 1662Trenchfield Chr. Chym. 109 A certain person that had sold a street of houses, and laid out the money in costly apparrel, came to Court, [etc.]. a1700Evelyn Diary 1 Jan. 1684, The weather continuing intolerably severe, streetes of booths were set upon the Thames. 1725De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. III. i. 191 Stopping a terrible Fire which otherwise had endangered burning the whole Street of Houses on the City Side of the Bridge. 1855Dickens Out of Town Repr. Pieces (1868) 217 We..built a street of shops, the business of which may be expected to arrive in about ten years.
d. Used for: The inhabitants of the street; also, the people in the street.
14..Chance of Dice in Skeat Chaucer Canon 126 Lord! so merily crowdeth then your crokke That all the streete may heare your body clokke. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 382 Then roase the streete, namely the youth, and they woulde haue had him out of the Bishoppes house. 1620Middleton Chaste Maid v. 66 All the whole Street will hate vs, and the World Point me out cruell. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull ii. iv. 17 If the Coach swung but the least to one side, she used to shriek so loud, that all the Street concluded she was over⁓turn'd. 1856Chamb. Jrnl. 12 Jan. 26/1 There was a mystery about him which the whole street had tried its skill in fathoming. 1894A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets 121 The street had the news the same hour.
e. transf. A passage between continuous lines of persons or things.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 4 The meyer..Made hem hove in rengis twayne, A strete betwene eche party lyke a walle, Alle clad in white, [etc.]. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iv. iv. 113 The shot..arriuing, do open, making a lane or streete, betwixt the which the Pikes do enter. 1802C. James Milit. Dict. s.v. Camp, The tents are placed in rows..with spaces between them, called streets. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. viii, I was ushered through an actual street of servitors..into a large and crowded saloon. 1829J. Shipp Mem. II. 133 To do honour to the reception of such a personage, the two flank companies of the 87th Regiment..formed a street to the general's tent. 1883Daily News 5 Sept. 5/6 If..a hundred thousand of them could be marshalled in Hyde Park, the artillery of the Government would make streets through them.
f. the street: some particular street to which the merchants or financiers of a city resort for business intercourse. In mod. use primarily U.S. (with cap.), applied to Wall Street, New York. Hence, the money market; the body of persons who conduct transactions in stocks and shares. Also, in London, in the street is said with reference to business done or prices quoted after the hour of closing of the Stock Exchange.
1555Eden tr. P. Martyr's Decades iii. 149 That they had cities fortified with waules,..and common places whyther marchauntes resort as to the burse or streate. [L. plateas etiam, stratasque uias ordine composito, ubi negocientur, haberent.] 1563Gresham in Burgon Life (1839) II. 26 By the reason, this plague tyme, there is noe money nor creadit to be had in the streat of London [editor explains as Lombard-street]. 1746P. Francis tr. Horace, Ep. i. i. 77 This maxim echoes through the bankers' street. 1863Kimball Undercurrents 131 (Flügel) Sufficient of the two millions [could be] launched on the street. 1883Nation (N.Y.) 16 Aug. 132/1 ‘The Street’ begins to play a larger and larger part in the financial world, owing to the enormous amounts of American capital it holds and of foreign capital it distributes. 1888C. Mills in N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 50 Then it was that the Street began to suspect that money would not always remain at four per cent. 1895Daily News 11 Jan. 7/1 After a weak opening South African shares improved,..and..the tone in the ‘Street’ this evening appeared firm. 1912Daily Tel. 19 Dec. 2/3 Americans were idle throughout, with a slightly firmer appearance in the street.
(b) Also, = Fleet Street s.v. fleet n.2 2 b.
1932News Chron. 11 Feb. 6/3 A year ago he was coming back as Editor to the Street. 1963L. Meynell Virgin Luck v. 101 The Street isn't the best place to come looking for a job at the moment. 1976‘J. Welcome’ Grand National viii. 123 Things were bad on the street... Two dailies were..expected to be unable to survive.
g. Physics. More fully vortex street [tr. G. wirbelstrasse]. An arrangement of vortices in which they form two parallel lines with clockwise rotation in one and anticlockwise rotation in the other; similarly cloud street.
1927Proc. R. Soc. A. CXVI. 170 These vortex bands..roll up and form what is commonly known as a vortex street. 1929Aircraft Engin. I. 124/3 Vortices in a ‘street’ of two rows. 1936Proc. R. Soc. A. CLIV. 68 For any given street the distance between consecutive vortices remains remarkably constant. 1954[see cloud street s.v. cloud n. 12]. 1956A. A. Townsend Struct. Turbulent Shear Flow vii. 144 For higher Reynolds numbers, either the vortex street forms very close to the cylinder or the circulation is itself unstable. 1973Times 29 Jan. 14/4 As a fish swims it produces a turbulent ‘vortex street’ of whirling water behind it. 1978R. S. Scorer Environmental Aerodynamics ix. 340 Cloud streets occur over land temporarily in the morning, and occasionally in the evening. Ibid. 341 Streets are common over the sea, particularly where the air stream is being slowly warmed.
h. the street: the streets regarded loosely as the realm of the common people, and esp. as the source of popular political support.
1931[see Nazi n.]. 1954B. & R. North tr. M. Duverger's Pol. Parties i. i. 38 The Storm troops wrested from the Communist and Socialist crowds their dominance of the street. 1969Listener 24 Apr. 555/3 This was the street taking over a modern state in a way which hasn't happened, I think, at any other time in our history. It was as if this country had been taken over by the Black and Tans.
i. the street (U.S. slang): the world outside prison or other confinement, freedom.
[1931G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 185 Streets, freedom, and so called by prisoners in confinement.] 1935J. Hargan Gloss. Prison Lang. 8 Street, hit the, to be released. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) xviii. 144, I was too busy thinking about ‘the street’ all the time and the life I'd left. 1966J. Mills Panic in Needle Park xix. 184 It is no accident that our patients refer to the world outside [the hospital] as ‘the street’: they cherish their mobility, the opportunity to escape difficult relationships, very highly. 1977E. Leonard Unknown Man No. 89 iv. 35 The jury believed Robert Leary and he was allowed to return to the street.
3. Phrases.
a. in the street(s: outside the house, out of doors; also, out of doors in a town or city. So (chiefly Sc. and U.S.) on or upon the street(s.
c1200[see 2]. a1300Cursor M. 2772 He praid þam..þai wald to gestening com hame,..and þai said nai, bot in the stret þar duell wald þai. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 4546 Þan sal þair bodys..In þe stretes ligg stille thre days And an half,..For na man sal þam dur biry. a1430Sev. Sages (Cott. Galba) 1556 Þe dore ful stalworthly he sperd..And lete his whif stand in þe strete. c1450Mirk's Festial 193 Anoþer tyme, as he walkyd yn þe strete, he herd a womon cry trauelyng on chyld. 1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 26 Diogenes..being asked why he eate openlie in the streete, answered because he was an hungered in the streete. 1582Allen Martyrdom Campion (1908) 118 He was apprehended in the streats of London ready to goe over to the seminarie at Remes. 1752A. Stewart in Scots Mag. (1753) Sept. 447/1 The deponent..met William Stewart upon the street. 1827Carlyle Germ. Rom. II. 160, I have seen him on the street. 1837― Fr. Rev. III. i. v, He recognized me on the streets and spoke to me, seven months after. 1861Two Cosmos iii. ii. I. 280 This town-officer has stopped me on the street, pretending that I owe an account to Mr. Donald Caird. 1866Sala Trip to Barbary 89 The concourse thinned not on the streets or in the Port. 1883C. D. Warner Roundabout Journ. 37 The young women are on the street with babies; the old ones sit by the doors of their little shops or their houses and knit. 1883J. C. Jeaffreson Real Ld. Byron I. 260 On leaving parties, to which she had not been invited, he found her waiting for him in the street. 1883Harper's Mag. Aug. 338/2 Cymric was heard commonly on the street.
b. on the street: (a) U.S. slang, outside prison, at liberty; (b) slang, by illicit trafficking (with reference to the acquisition of drugs): (c) colloq., out of work, unemployed.
1935N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 73 Street, n., figuratively, freedom. ‘Another year will see him on the street.’ 1951W. Faulkner Requiem for Nun iii. 251 They worked their fines out on the street. 1977New Yorker 24 Oct. 64/3 A number of men who are heterosexual on the street practice homosexuality in prison. 1979Guardian 30 Oct. 8/5 We have either an extremely successful therapeutic service, or people are obtaining the drugs which they want ‘on the street’. 1980J. Wainwright Venus Fly-Trap 12 It's my living, too... If I upset that crowd, I could be on the street.
c. on the streets (Sc.): turned out of doors, homeless.
1852J. Anderson in Literary Gaz. 3 Jan. 12/2 The door of the church..opened, and there issued forth Chalmers and Welsh,..and the Church of Scotland was on the streets, and free.
d. to be on the streets: to be a prostitute. Hence, the street(s as designating a life of prostitution.
[1728: see f.] 1750Johnson Rambler No. 12 ⁋10 She told me, that having a respect for my relations, she was willing to keep me out of the street, and would let me have another week. 1754J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) II. 227 By Heavens! I would rather hear of her being on the Streets of London, than married to so vile a Fellow. 1802H. Martin Helen of Glenross III. 82 To be..accompanied by any woman, not absolutely on the streets, is a point to her, whom scarce one does not feel unwilling to appear publicly with. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 60 Two girls, who..had been forced to go upon the streets to gain a living. 1885Daily News 3 Nov. 6/3 This little girl had a sister who was on the streets and who was in the house of this bad woman. 1886Baring-Gould Court Royal xiii, They went into service, and when they found that they were expected to dust chairs and wash up breakfast things they went on the streets. 1905R. Broughton Waif's Progr. i. 6 ‘If we refuse the girl, what is the alternative?’ ‘None, apparently, but the streets.’
e. up street, down street (vulgar): in or towards the upper or lower part of the street.
1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. xxiii, A retired miller who had died of dropsy ‘up street’. 1890W. A. Wallace Only a Sister? 115 We've some chaps bad down street after that little kick up at the Irish affairs meeting.
† f. to weep full a street: ‘to fill a street with one's tears’, to weep immoderately. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Troylus iv. 929 What helpeth it to wepen ful a strete, Or though ye bothe in salte teres dreynte?
g. to walk the street(s: to go about on foot in a town. Also with reference as in c.
1606N. B[axter] Sydney's Ourania K 3 b, Each swaggering Ruffin now that walk's the streetes, Proud as Lucifer, stabbeth whom he meetes. 1709Hearne in Lett. Eminent Persons (1813) I. 193 There has been a person in Oxford, who saw her walk the street since this amazing accident. 1714Budgell tr. Theophrastus xxiv. 69 When he walks the Streets, he never Condescends to look about him, or to know any one he meets. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 230 While all your smutty sisters walk the streets. 1735― Sat. Donne ii. 73 For you he walks the streets thro' rain or dust. 1753J. Collier Art of Tormenting i. ii. 54 How likely is it, that..you would be deserted by those base wretches your seducers! You know I have often wept,..lest you should come to walk London Streets. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. viii. (1883) 195 When a lady walks the streets..she knows well enough that the street is a picture-gallery, where pretty faces..are meant to be seen, and everybody has a right to see them. 1908S. E. White Riverman xvii, The remainder of the time he spent walking the streets and reading in the club rooms.
h. the man in (also U.S. on) the street: the ordinary man, as distinguished from the expert or the man who has special opportunities of knowledge. Similarly the woman in the street. Also (with hyphens) attrib.
1831Greville Mem. 22 Mar. (1874) II. 131 The other [side affirms] that the King will not consent to it, knowing, as ‘the man in the street’ (as we call him at Newmarket) always does, the greatest secrets of kings. 1854Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Eloquence Wks. (Bohn) III. 192 The speech of the man in the street is invariably strong, nor can you mend it by making it what you call parliamentary. 1860― Conduct Life, Worship ibid. II. 398 Certain patriots in England devoted themselves for years to creating a public opinion that should break down the corn-laws and establish free trade. ‘Well,’ says the man in the street, ‘Cobden got a stipend out of it.’ [Frequent in Emerson.] 1868G. J. Whyte-Melville White Rose xlvii, ‘Jerry’, said he, ‘I didn't come here at early dawn only to tell you what ‘the Man in the Street’ says.’ 1898Bodley France II. iii. v. 259 It is the man in the street and the democracy generally that the fall of a Ministry fails to move. 1900Fairbairn in Examiner 21 June 327/2 The man in the street..may be a very excellent person, but his very ordinariness puts a long way between him and an ample and distinguished manhood. 1926Galsworthy Silver Spoon iii. xi. 305 She had the political cynicism of the woman in the street. 1928Amer. Speech IV. 134 The American newspaper man..speaks a patois bewildering to the man on the street. 1942G. Greene British Dramatists 20 We notice the quality which reached its height in the great comedies..a kind of man-in-the-street poetry. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio vii. 130 A sort of convention has arisen whereby ‘man-in-the-street’ interviews are cut together by simple editing. 1964R. K. Goldsen in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 89 We must endeavor to make sociological knowledge as inescapable for men-on-the-street as are..the virtues of the latest detergent. 1973Observer (Colour Suppl.) 4 Feb. 15/4 He really wanted to please the man on the street and the man on the street knew it. 1977E. W. Hildick Vandals i. ii. 17 Taperecorded man- and woman-in-the-street interviews.
i. colloq. or slang. not to be in the same street with: to be far behind in a race, to be far inferior to. to be streets ahead, better: to be far ahead in a race, to be far superior. not the length of a street: no great interval. by a street: by a wide margin (esp. of a sporting victory).
1883Mrs. E. Kennard Right Sort xx, Nevertheless, though not in the same street with King Olaf, it won't do to estimate Singing Bird's chance too lightly. 1884G. Moore Mummer's Wife (1887) 162, I don't pretend to be able to teach singing, but were you under my grandfather a year or so, I am..certain that Beaumont wouldn't be in the same street with you. 1893Kennel Gaz. Aug. 213/2 Kitty of Coleshill was just the best of the bunch [of setters], but there was not the length of a street between her and Sister Gabrielle. 1898Westm. Gaz. 1 Feb. 6/3 The English are better photographers than the Americans, but as regards mechanical ingenuity..the latter are streets ahead. 1912Throne 7 Aug. 227/1 The race will be over by the time these notes appear in print, but..I do not think Pinks will finish in the same street as the holder. 1917Times 27 Jan. 9/5 The man who takes a glass of tawny port and a biscuit at 11 a.m. is streets better off than the man who takes a whisky and soda and a cigarette. 1962Times 5 Nov. 4/1 Oxford..could have won by a street before half time. 1971Daily Tel. 28 Sept. 30/1 He already knew what most of us had already calculated—that Bodell had won by a street. 1977Time Out 17–23 June 65/5 The Scots should win the drinking by a street. 1982Age Monthly Rev. (Melbourne) Mar. 11/3 Any label embracing such a wide range of usage is too wide by a street.
j. to be up (down, † in) one's street: to be suited to someone's taste or ability.
1903Farmer & Henley Slang VII. 10/1 Street.., a capacity, a method; a line: e.g. ‘That's not in my street’ = ‘I am not concerned’ or ‘That's not my way of doing,’ etc. 1929Publishers' Weekly 21 Dec. 2813/2 A great many of the books published today are, as the saying is, right up her street. 1937Forward 13 Nov. 1/2 We Labour people can the more easily say these things because some of his activities were ‘up our street’. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited ii. iv. 259 She is a jolly attractive girl, the sort of girl any chap would be glad to have—artistic, too, just down your street. 1955Knight & George Advice to Student of French 67 The historical line of enquiry is outside your scope, but the analysis of the book or books is right down your street. 1960L. Cooper Accomplices i. vi. 55 John Pollard got me the job and..I loved it... It was right up my street. 1977It May 28/1 If you like Miles Davis's ‘In a Silent Way’ then Don Cherry has a new release which is just up your street.
k. to play or work both sides of the street (orig. and chiefly U.S.): to ally oneself with both sides, to behave inconsistently and opportunistically.
1938Sun (Baltimore) 8 Sept. 1/2 Our friends of the New Deal have the devil's own nerve when it comes to working both sides of the street... Mr. James A. Farley..can reel off a speech as pious as the heart could wish and he can play the part of Jobmaster General with all the ruthlessness of the Tammany school of politics. 1951E. Kefauver Crime in Amer. xvii. 202 He played both sides of the street and made contributions to candidates of both major parties. 1969Listener 13 Feb. 196/3 Amnesty International has to play both sides of the political street in seeking to obtain the release of political prisoners... Information usually comes either from the press or through prisoners' friends, but known domestic or foreign opponents of a regime are not..necessarily the best channel for bringing influence to bear.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. Simple attrib., with the senses ‘of or pertaining to the streets’, ‘exercising one's calling in the streets’, ‘transacted or taking place in the streets’, as in street accident, street band, street battle, street beggar, † street-beggary, street bookie, street-bookmaker, street-bookmaking, street clothes, street-crier, street-cry, street decoration, street fair, street game, street gang, street-life, street market, street meeting, street music, street-musician, street-noise, street-orator, street organ, street party, street patrol, street photographer, street piano, street preacher, street riot, street-rioter, street-robber, street robbery, † street-scuffler, street-seller, street-shrine, street-singer, street-singing, street song, street-talk, street theatre, street trade, street-trader, street-trading, street vendor, street violence, street warfare.
1892Kipling Many Invent. (1893) 164, I heard Keller saying, as though he were watching a *street accident, ‘Give him air. For God's sake, give him air.’ 1980J. Hone Flowers of Forest i. i. 14 An essential witness in a street accident.
1838Dickens Nich. Nick. (1839) ii. 6 *Street bands are on their mettle in Golden Square. 1977New Statesman 2 Sept. 292/1 The traditional Trinidadian street bands and dancers.
1936New Yorker 7 Mar. 29/1 In 1923..the Commissioner..in a *street battle routed the brownshirts. 1978‘A. Stuart’ Vicious Circles 21 Last night's riots in Milan where fascists had fought communists in a running street battle.
1713Steele Guardian No. 144 ⁋1 Our very *Street Beggars are not without their peculiar Oddities. 1976Birmingham Post 16 Dec. 5/5 Patrick Haplin, a street beggar, will celebrate Christmas in prison—for the tenth consecutive year.
1625Donne Serm. lxv. (1640) 659 That *street-beggery, which is become a Calling.
1939John o' London's Weekly 2 June 320/2 He gets himself..into minor social difficulties, finding himself one day..in the police cells in Kennington, accused of being a *street-bookie. 1980G. M. Fraser Mr. American xxiv. 479 Unless ultimately he could break them, he might as well go back to catching street bookies.
1939H. Hodge Cab, Sir? xvi. 238 We [sc. cabmen] have come to look on the police-court dock as a normal trade risk—just as *street-bookmakers and prostitutes do.
1981R. Samuel East End Underworld xiv. 179 They kept a big cat's meat shop, but his real money came from *street bookmaking.
1908M. Morgan How to dress Doll vii. 63 (heading) Dolly's *street clothes. Here is Dolly dressed for a walk. 1981M. C. Smith Gorky Park i. 10 In his street clothes Arkady was slovenly.
1847Lever Knt. Gwynne xxxv, With the sing-song intonation of a *street-crier.
1858Punch XXIV. 103 The value of the houses..is daily diminishing by reason of the *Street Cries, which render the place uninhabitable. 1874All Year Round 14 Feb. 372 The London street cries which we find recorded in old books.
1911Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 759/2 *Street decoration. 1969Guardian 18 Dec. 9/1 There are fewer street decorations..store displays are less lavish.
1872B. Jerrold London xix. 158 These *street-fairs are held chiefly on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. 1982‘E. McBain’ Beauty & Beast viii. 130 Calusa's street fairs during..March and April, when the tourists were thickest.
1890Public Ledger (Philadelphia) 9 Dec. 6/5 Mr. Stewart Culin..recently delivered a lecture in Brooklyn, on children's *street games. 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games p. vi, There is no town or city known to us where street games do not flourish.
1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags i. 32 A Glasgow millionaire..who had started life in a *street gang. 1979Amer. Speech 1976 LI. 61 Their speech is closer to standard than is that of the adolescent street-gang members.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 327 This is a trade associated with *street-life rather than forming an integrant part of it. 1884C. Phillipps-Wolley Trottings of Tenderfoot 210 Which to me were the great feature of the town's street-life.
1870D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxxiv. 507 The roughest audience..wandered right and left..to..choke the thoroughfare to buy in the *street market, which was now—eleven o'clock—at the height of commercial prosperity. 1922V. Woolf Jacob's Room viii. 157 The street market in Soho is fierce with light. 1982Listener 16 Dec. 34/3 Beware street-market tapes at silly prices, even if they have well-known brand names.
[1923R. Macaulay Told by Idiot i. xii. 46 She attended street labour meetings in the east [end]. ]1933‘G. Orwell’ Down & out in Paris & London xxv. 183 There were *street meetings... In the East India Dock Road the Salvation Army were holding a service. 1982R. Manheim tr. Grasse's Headbirths vi. 85 Street meeting in the pedestrian zone.
1829Harlequin 20 June 48 *Street music is on the march... At Ascot, some glee-singers received two sovereigns for singing before the Royal Stand.
1841C. Knight Lond. I. 141 De la Serre..is enthusiastic in his praises of the *street music of London.
1839Act 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47 §57 To require any *Street Musician to depart from the Neighbourhood of the House.
1841C. Knight Lond. I. 129 *Street noises.
1780Ann. Reg. ii. 23 At Rome, those *street-orators sometimes entertain their audience with interesting passages of real history.
1849E. Ruskin Let. 28 Oct. in M. Lutyens Effie in Venice (1965) I. 54 This Milan is a most wonderful place for *street organs. 1964G. Mitchell Death of Delft Blue i. 15 If you go there [sc. Amsterdam], be sure to look out for the street organs, the barrel-organs, you know.
1953Times 3 June 8/1 The most popular events were the *street parties. In some 30 or 40 streets the inhabitants had clubbed together to hold parties, starting, as a rule, with tea for the children. 1977New Yorker 27 June 52/1 London's celebrations of the Queen's Silver Jubilee seemed like one mammoth street party.
1976Guardian 12 Apr. 20/7 All good police officers know that the *street patrol on foot..is the classic champion over the scourge of street crime.
1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. vi. 132 Here..is a group taken by a *street photographer. 1981‘S. Caudwell’ Thus was Adonis Murdered xviii. 230 The street photographers and sellers of souvenirs continued about their business.
1857Punch XXXII. 40 All music sounds alike to him, whether it be the Handel of the organ-loft or the handle of the *street piano. 1903[see plunk v. 1 b]. 1978L. Deighton SS-GB xix. 166 Douglas stopped to give a penny to an old man at the handle of a street piano.
1878Golden Hours X. 85/2 Moxy looked up quickly into the face of an old black ‘mammy’ who..had paused for a moment to listen to the words of the *street preacher. 1916G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion p. xii, The horror of the High Priest was perfectly natural: he was a Primate confronted with a heterodox street preacher uttering what seemed to him an appalling and impudent blasphemy. 1977J. Gillis Killers of Starfish (1979) v. 35 He pretended he was a street preacher once and people put pennies and dimes in his hat to save the sinners.
1980L. St. Clair Obsessions i. 16 Perhaps there would be no more *street riots and shooting.
1900Kipling Let. 24 July in C. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) xiii. 314 We advanced against 'em [sc. the Boers] as if they were *street-rioters that we didn't want to hurt.
1728[De Foe] Street-Robberies 25 Shoplifters, House-breakers and *Street-Robbers.
Ibid. 59 Another Reason of the Frequency of *Street Robberies, is the Remissness or Corruption of the Watch.
1772Nugent tr. Grosley's Tour Lond. I. 87 The state of nature, a state with which the *street-scufflers of London are closely connected.
1827Hone Table Bk. I. 685 The man..was a *street seller of hobbyhorses.
1911J. Ward Roman Era Brit. vii. 119 The Pompeian *street shrines were as varied as the domestic.
1789C. Burney Hist. Mus. III. 64 It seems to have been the wish of illiterate and furious reformers, that all religious offices should be performed by field-preachers and *street-singers. 1841C. Knight Lond. I. 144 The street-singers of Paris.
1624Heywood Captives ii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Hee had too handsome *streete-singing-fact lasses in his companye. 1958E. Routley Eng. Carol 228 Television probably accounts in part for the decline of street-singing.
1891R. Fry Let. 4 Mar. (1972) I. 129 There is a good deal of spontaneous music in the Italians... Their *street songs are perfect of their kind. 1959W. R. Bird These are Maritimes x. 274 There were street songs brought out over the years from the old country.
1826Lamb Pop. Fallacies xii, The casual *street-talk between a poor woman and her little girl.
1959G. Wickham Early Eng. Stages I. iii. 51 Specially erected platforms..in market squares or other open spaces..are usually known by such names as ‘booth theatres’, théâtres de la foire, or simply ‘*street theatres’. 1977Spare Rib May 16/1 I'd like to do street theatre, but it's not that easy in a place like Sheffield.
1841C. Knight Lond. I. 139 Of the *street trades that are past and forgotten, the smallcoal-man was one of the most remarkable.
1870D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxvi. 395 These dog-sellers are the keenest *street-traders to be found in London. 1979S. Brett Comedian Dies i. 17 [He] spoke with the brash confidence of an East End street-trader.
1903Act 3 Edw. VII c. 45 §2 Any local authority may make byelaws with respect to *street trading by persons under the age of sixteen. 1977J. Thomson Case Closed viii. 99 They'd kept their street-trading licence and..they'd go round the local markets selling clothing.
1872B. Jerrold London ii. 23 Stopped by *street vendors of all descriptions. 1978N. Longmate Hungry Mills vii. 100 His heart went out to the inexperienced street-vendors he encountered.
1977Times 22 Jan. 4/4 The two days of *street violence [in Cairo] which took more than 60 lives.
1830in Times (1982) 7 June 14/7 Locomotive Carriages might be used with great advantage in cases of Riot and *Street Warfare. 1938‘G. Orwell’ Homage to Catalonia x. 174 Few experiences could be..more nerve-racking than those evil days of street warfare.
b. attrib. with the sense ‘of or pertaining to a street or streets’, as street architecture, street-corner, street-crossing, street-directory, street-end, street island, street-lamp, street-length, street map, street-name, street plan, street-side. Also street-like adj., street-wise adv.
1933J. Betjeman Ghastly Good Taste vi. 99 The true eighteenth century tradition, which lavished adornment on the interior and did not worry as much about *street architecture. 1978Architectural Design 5 June 314/2 Shaw's Albert Hall Mansions of 1879–81..are excellent as street architecture.
1836Dickens Sk. Boz 2nd Ser. ii. 22 The policeman at the *street corner. 1841― Barn. Rudge xxvi, They alighted at the street-corner. 1909C. Elsee Neoplatonism Pref. p. v, The crowd that listens to the street-corner preacher of materialism. 1944[see feel v. 9 e]. 1978J. Wainwright Jury People xxxvi. 118 Yobbo types, tearaways, bully-boys, street-corner louts.
1875‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly May 571/1 Go on until you know every *street-crossing, the character, size, and position of the crossing stones, [etc.]. 1956D. Gascoyne Night Thoughts 26 Street-crossing islands stand becalmed. 1977R. L. Wolff Gains & Losses ii. iii. 243 The virtuous street urchin who has never heard of Christ..raises himself..to the proprietorship of a muddy street-crossing as a sweeper.
1817A. Johnstone (title), The London commercial guide and *street directory. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. iii. 109 Names familiar to us now..in street-directories had been found among the dead at Poitiers.
1890Kipling Life's Handicap (1891) 79 A lamp at a *street-end. 1904A. C. Benson House of Quiet xiii. (1907) 77 The constant presence, in these London pictures, of straight framing lines, contributed by house-front and street-end.
1919J. Buchan Mr. Standfast x. 187 A hundred yards away a bomb fell on a *street island. 1934Sun (Baltimore) 31 May 5/3 A hard-driving taxi driver ignored a red signal, threatened the traffic policeman's knees, missed the street island by a hair [etc.].
1799C. B. Brown Arthur Mervyn I. iv. 33 [The room's] height and spaciousness were imperfectly discernible..by gleams from a *street lamp. 1870–74J. Thomson City Dreadf. Nt. i. vi, The street-lamps always burn. 1874Longfellow Sonn., Summer day by Sea 6 From the dim headlands many a lighthouse gleams, The street-lamps of the ocean.
1910Spectator 9 July 51/2 They may be *street-lengths from it, but it is sure to find them.
1595E. C. Emaricdulfe Sonn. xxi. in Lamport Garl. (Roxb.), Through *street-like straight hie-waies I did attempt.
1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin vii. 52 Spectacles produced a *street map and..began marking circles here and there. 1978T. Allbeury Lantern Network x. 141 The street map showed it as a small road off the Brighton Road.
1861Chamb. Jrnl. 30 Nov. 337 (art.) *Street Names. 1970J. McN. Dodgson Place-Names Cheshire I. p. xliv, As a rule, street-names not recorded before 1700 are excluded.
1929Woolley's Ludlow Guide (ed. 18) 44 (caption) *Street plan of Ludlow. 1978W. J. Burley Wycliffe & Scapegoat iii. 55 Wycliffe studied the street plan. ‘Here we are. Albert Terrace.’
1463Bury Wills (Camden) 22 The gate be the *strete syde. 1538–9Act Comm. Counc. in Calthrop Rep. Cases, etc. (1670) 177 That strong Grates of Iron along the said Water-side, and also by the Street-side,..be made by the Inhabitants of every Ward. 1911J. Ward Roman Era Brit. vii. 116 Along the street⁓side were the remains of a narrow building. 1974New Yorker 29 Apr. 47/1 The odd oarsman..looks forlorn seen from the bridges or the streetsides. 1977Antiquaries Jrnl. LVII. 251 The building extended only for the width of the streetside room..from the street frontage.
1911Webster, *Streetwise, adv., after the manner of a street.
c. objective, as street-cleaner, street-cleaning, street-layer, street-lighting, street-pacing adj., street-sweeper, street-sweeping.
1898‘Merriman’ Roden's Corner xi. 111 A few *street⁓cleaners were leisurely working, a few milkmen were hurrying from door to door.
1896Harper's Mag. June 149/1 What do you think of the new *Street-Cleaning Department?
a1893W. Burns Thomson Remin. (1895) 78 He had been much exposed from his calling as a *street-layer.
1916G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion p. lxxii, The sportsmen, the musicians, the physicists, the biologists will get their apparatus for the asking as easily as their bread or, as at present, their paving, *street lighting, and bridges. 1979Time 8 Jan. 23/2 In 1975 Gacy became a trustee of the Norwood Park Township Street Lighting District.
1784Cowper Tiroc. 217 There waiter Dick..His counsellor and bosom-friend shall prove, And some *street-pacing harlot his first love.
1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxv, If she..made a curtsey to a *street-sweeper. 1871Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 174, I mean, on 1st January next, to take three street-sweepers into constant service.
1843Builder 18 Feb. 21/3 [Description of the] Patent Self-Loading Cart, or *Street-Sweeping Machine. 1849A. R. Wallace My Life (1905) I. xviii. 273 Piassaba (the coarse stiff fibre of a palm, used for making brooms for street-sweeping).
d. locative, with the sense ‘in the streets’, as street wanderer; street-bred, street-sold adjs.
1722De Foe Col. Jack i, Sharp as a *street-bred boy must be, but ignorant and unteachable from a child. 1892Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 174 The poor little street⁓bred people that vapour and fume and brag.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 326 At the National Gallery, the *street⁓sold catalogues are 1d., 3d., and 6d.; in the hall, the authorised copy is sold at 4d. and 1s.
1828Miss Mitford Village III. 254 A ‘palpable obscure,’ which..threatens to extinguish the lamps and lanthorns, with which the poor *street-wanderers strive to illumine their darkness.
e. attrib. passing into adj., with reference to the streets as the focus of modern urban life, esp. among the poor and contrasted with polite society. Often with the implication of illegal dealings (esp. drug-trafficking), or the sharp-wittedness needed to survive ‘on the streets’. orig. U.S.
1967‘T. Wells’ Dead by Light of Moon xiii. 126 A street merchant is a con artist who pretends to sell stolen goods. 1967Trans-Action Apr. 5/1 Street culture exists in every low income ghetto. It is shared by the hustling elements of the poor, whatever their nationality or color. 1972N.Y. Times 24 Dec. iv. 6 Murphy called a news conference to announce that 57 pounds of heroin with an estimated street value of more than $10-million had been stolen. 1973D. Barnes See the Woman (1974) 73 His name is Frederick L. Pepper... He's got a street name of ‘Red Pepper’. 1976R. Condon Whisper of Axe i. xv. 87 The street price for one kilogram of heroin is one million two hundred thousand dollars. 1979W. J. Fishman Streets of East London 74/1 A street culture based on the pub. 1980Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 Dec. 1511/1 Phencyclidine is now a class 2 controlled substance in the United States—and after marijuana has become the most widely abused ‘street drug’ in North America. 1982R. Leigh Girl with Bright Head ii. 12 She wasn't street tough but neither was she a runaway kid up from the provinces.
f. Special comb.: street-Arab (also written with small a), a homeless vagrant (usually a child) living in the streets (see Arab n. 3); street-ballad, a ballad composed to be sung by street-singers; street-boy, a homeless or neglected boy who lives chiefly in the streets; street-breakfast (see quot.); † street-chair, ? a sedan chair; street-child, a homeless or neglected child who lives chiefly in the streets; † street-coach, a hackney-coach; street cred slang, abbrev. of street credibility and street credible adj. below; street credibility slang, popularity with, or accessibility to, ordinary people, esp. those involved in urban street culture; the appearance or fact of being ‘street-wise’; hence, (apparent) familiarity with contemporary trends, fashions, social issues, etc.; also street credible a., possessing street credibility; street crime U.S., a crime such as robbery, assault, etc., committed on the streets; street-dirt = street-manure; street-dog, an ownerless dog living in the streets; street-farer nonce-wd., one who passes through the streets; street fighting, fighting conducted in the streets, esp. on a large scale for political or revolutionary ends; so street fight, street fighter; street-firing, discharge of musketry in order to defend or scour a street; street floor U.S. = ground-floor; street furniture, objects such as post-boxes, road-signs, litter bins, etc., placed in the street for public use or assistance (orig. a planners' term); † street-gadder, one who ‘gads’ about the streets; street girl, a homeless or neglected girl who lives chiefly in the streets; a prostitute; street-grid, an arrangement of streets crossing at right angles to each other; street hockey N. Amer., a variety of ice hockey played on the street; street jewellery, painted enamel advertising plates considered as collectors' items; street kid = street child above; street-legal a., applied to a motor vehicle which satisfies the legal requirements for roadworthiness; street level, (a) ground-floor level; (b) fig., the level of direct contact with the public or of operation on the streets; street-light, † (a) a window opening on the street; (b) a street lamp; street-manure, horse-dung and road-scrapings used for manure; street name U.S. [after Wall Street], the name of a stock-brokerage firm, bank, or dealer in which stock is held on behalf of the purchaser; † street-parlour, a sitting-room on the ground-floor, fronting the street; street people orig. and chiefly U.S., (a) homeless or vagrant people who live on the streets, esp. as a protest against the conventional values of society; (b) people involved in petty crime in the urban underworld; (c) spec. people dealing in the illicit supply of drugs ‘on the street’; street-porter, a porter employed to lift or carry heavy packages in the street (in early use = ticket-porter); street price Stock Exchange, see quot. 1893; street-railway, a tramway; † street-raking a. Sc., that wanders about the streets; street-refuge = refuge n. 3; street rod orig. U.S. (see quot. 1954); hence street rodding vbl. n.; street-room, sufficient space in the streets; streetscape, a view or prospect provided by the design of a (city) street or streets; street scene, the spectacle of life in the streets; street-smart a. U.S. slang = street-wise adj. (b) below; also street-smarts, the ability to live by one's wits in an urban environment; street-soil (? obs.) = street-manure; † street-thread = street-web; street-to-street a., of fighting: taking place in the streets; street tree, a tree planted at the side of a street to enhance the view; street urchin, a mischievous little street-boy; street village, a long, narrow village formed of buildings along either side of a main street; street warden, (a) an air-raid warden assigned to a particular street or streets; (b) a warden selected to look out for certain social problems in a particular street or streets; street-web (now dial.), see quot. 1854; street-wise a. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.), (a) familiar with the outlook of ordinary people in an urban environment; (b) cunning in the ways of modern urban life; street worker orig. N. Amer., a social worker whose concern is with juvenile delinquents; street-yarn U.S. = street worker.
1859G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 388 *Street Arabs, threw ‘cart-wheels’ into the midst of the throng. 1865Littledale Cath. Ritual Ch. Eng. 8 How can we most easily get a half-savage street-Arab..to understand that there is [etc.]. 1875Punch 6 Mar. 108/2 Irregular crossing-sweepers, unlicensed boot-cleaners, and street-Arabs generally. 1892Mrs. H. Ward David Grieve ii. vii, He strode on just in time to avoid a flight of street-arabs. 1924Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 49 The children..were singing..with a sort of street-arab abandon.
1759Dilworth Pope 80 Such as the lowest political pamphlets, the meanest *street-ballads glancing at state-affairs or the church established. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles ii. 9 A voice was heard..droning a street-ballad of the day.
1854Dickens Hard T. i. xvi. 127, I was a ragged *streetboy. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter 31 He opens the door, and fetches in the little stranger. What can it be? a street-boy of some sort?
1834Dickens Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs., At the corner of a by-street, near Temple-bar, was stationed a ‘*street⁓breakfast’. The coffee was boiling over a charcoal fire [etc.].
a1712Fountainhall Decis. (1759) II. 347 Dame Anna Macmorran..pursues her daughter..for paying her 4000 merks for her mournings..having put a room or two in black, covered her *street-chair, and cloathed two servants, a page, &c.
1863Dickens Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings i, in All Year Round Extra Christmas No. 3 Dec. 8/2 You must allow me to inform you..that my grandson is not a *street-child. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 232 The street-child today with his soot-blackened face and red-daubed nose, rattling a tin, is a much more demure creature than his predecessors. 1982G. Wagner Children of Empire vii. 123 Three-quarters of his young life had been spent in the workhouse, yet technically he was a ‘street child’.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxv, ‘No, sir,’ said Jeanie; ‘a friend brought me in ane o' their *street coaches—a very decent woman’.
1981Guardian Weekly 6 Sept. 4/5 A couple of expressions have only come my way in the last month or so. One is ‘street wise’ and the other ‘*street cred’. 1985Sunday Times 11 Aug. 17/7 Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, lives in a ‘street cred’ west London semi. 1985Internat. Musician June 9/4, I know that walking down main street with an oboe in hand does nothing for the street cred. 1986Sunday Tel. 2 Feb. 11/8 You need to have ‘street cred.’..You need to have done something which makes you popular for people to let you do the projects you want.
1979Sounds 1 Dec. 33/1 Levine has real *street credibility (not like some wimp who wears Mary Quant's latest range, went to public school and then tells the world he's as street level as the Cockney Rejects). 1980Washington Post 24 Nov. b11/2 Springsteen's street credibility is the core of his effectiveness. His striking working-class imagery is within everyone's experience, or at least within their reach. 1985Observer 20 Oct. 18/7 The two parties..were organised by people whose claim to fame is their knowledge of society, street credibility and social organisation.
1984Daily Tel. 11 Sept. 16/4, I await with baited breath the arrival of ‘caring-profession’, ‘*street-credible’ and ‘yuppie’ in the next volume. 1986Sunday Express Mag. 9 Nov. 36/1 Talking Heads are sufficiently street-credible in three-quarters of the known universe.
1973Listener 20 Sept. 364/1 You'd expect..New York to take a highly sophisticated view of the drug problem, for it is more subtle in its operations here,..and responsible for more *street crimes—robberies and rapes—than in any other State. 1978Chicago June 162/2 The states attorney's office..must prosecute virtually all local street crime, leaving meager resources for long, complex investigations.
1765Museum Rust. IV. 373 He has seen it [coleseed] yield good crops on a dry chalky soil, on which *street-dirt had been laid.
1873Leland Egypt. Sketch-Bk. 228 Nobody looked at it but I and a *street-dog. 1911Contemp. Rev. July 27 We have got rid of the street dogs in Constantinople.
1880W. Watson Prince's Quest (1892) 51 As one who cared no-wise to make fast his ears Against the babble of the *street farers.
1851–61Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 29 The result of some *street-fight. 1930E. Pound XXX Cantos ix. 35 And he fought in Fano, in a street fight. 1976Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 26 Dec. 1/2 Late-night revellers were terrified when several running street fights broke out.
1970K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) ix. 102, I promised my mother I would only marry a *street fighter.
1832F. Maceroni (title) Defensive instructions..on..*street and house fighting. 1900W. S. Churchill in Morning Post 12 July 7/7 The cavalry halted on the hills for a while, the general being desirous of obtaining the formal surrender of Heilbron, and so preventing street-fighting or bombardment. 1981Times 6 July 13/1 Within a few months there have been three major eruptions of street fighting, all of which have included an ethnic element.
1763Brit. Mag. IV. 543 About a mile and a half from the fort we had orders to form into platoons, and, if attacked in the front, to fire by *street-firings. 1790Beatson Nav. & Milit. Mem. I. 97 The grenadiers..having, with very little loss, received two fires from the enemy, they began a street firing. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. v. iii, Neither have the Gardes Françaises, the best regiment of the line, shown any promptitude for street-firing lately.
1927Doubman & Whitaker Organization & Operations of Department Stores vii. 162 The first or *street floor of a store is the most desirable for selling. 1972H. Kemelman Monday the Rabbi took Off xxvi. 170 Why would he take an apartment on a street floor here?
1944J. C. Riddell Rep. Post War Housing 11 In all future planning there should..be the closest co-operation between all departments and services responsible for the erection of *street furniture and small buildings. 1976Cumberland & Westmorland Herald 27 Nov., We don't want to waste officers' time..on more street furniture which costs a fortune today.
1577Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. 309 His wife is a seeker of kinred, a gossip, a *streete gadder.
1907G. B. Shaw Major Barbara 1. 206 You have had the education of a lady... Don't talk like a *street girl. a1911[see most adv. 4]. 1979Maledicta III. 11 For a budding sexologist I must have been uncommonly naive, but I swear that I didn't catch on that these were street girls' joints till it dawned on me, while sorting out my notes, that I seemed to have a disproportionate number of sexual idioms.
1948Antiquity XXII. 173 The wide road leading to its main entrance from the east is plainly out of alignment with the *street grid on the west side of the Forum block. 1964Listener 27 Aug. 300/2 The avenue slices diagonally across the basic street-grid.
1964Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Dec. 41/8 He brought a fresh approach to *street hockey when he began trying to teach Frank how to shoot a puck. 1976New Yorker 26 Apr. 90/3 Meynell and I played marbles, mumblety-peg, running games, street hockey, primitive baseball, stoop ball, games of imagination.
1978Baglee & Morley Street Jewellery 9 *Street jewellery, flashing in the winter sunlight, gleaming in gaslight..—the enamel sign. 1982Arts North June 9 (caption) Street jewellery—one of the saucier enamel signs from the fascinating exhibition at the Dorman Museum.
1929E. Wilson in New Republic 17 Apr. 256/2 The money with which the *street-kids have been playing craps. 1977Rolling Stone 5 May 55/1 You could go to New Delhi or Calcutta, there are thousands of street kids there.
1976Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune 29 June 19/1 (Advt.), Yamaha 125. *Street legal. Good condition. 1980Dirt Bike Oct. 58/3 The rear fender is plastic, which is a rarity on street legal bikes.
1934Archit. Rev. LXXV. 214/3 The storey built above, the *street-level floor was called a solar. 1963‘ J. le Carré’ Spy who came in from Cold xv. 140 Branch Secretaries with..a good record of stimulating mass action at street level. 1974‘E. Lathen’ Sweet & Low xi. 114 He reached street level. 1976Times 6 Sept. 2/3 Plans are advanced to open..an office in Belfast..accessible to both communities. An effort will be made to concentrate organization at street level. 1982G. F. Newman Men with Guns ix. 69 Kohn avoided contact with street-level hoods... Now he was a respectable businessman.
a1625Fletcher Wom. Pleased ii. iii, For you Lady, Ile have your Lodgings farther off, and closer, Ile have no *street-lights to you. 1906B. von Hutten What became of Pam 212 The street-lights burst like great flowers into the dusk. 1955E. Blishen Roaring Boys iii. 128 The street lights..were on early. 1969L. Michaels Going Places 27 Streetlights glowed in a receding sweep.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm II. 676 That stable-dung is the most heating,..that byre-dung is cooler,..and that *street-manure is very inferior to the other two in every respect.
1930C. F. Hodges Wall Street 383 When a security is registered in the name of a recognized brokerage firm, usually members of the Exchange, it is said to be in a ‘*Street Name’. 1933North Western Reporter CCXLVI. 660/1 The court properly instructed as to the ‘street name’ custom of the exchange..submitted to the jury the question of fact [etc.]. Ibid. 664/2 Evidence sustained finding that customer's repudiation of broker's purchase of stock in ‘street name’, instead of customer's name, was made within reasonable time. 1976E. Stewart Launch! (1977) 35 ‘And I want to know how much the brokerage houses are holding in street names.’ All the brokerage houses had street-name accounts, stock bought and traded for clients in the broker's name.
1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 39 The earl sat in the *street-parlour.
1967Trans-Action Apr. 5/1 In Los Angeles, members of..street groups sometimes call themselves ‘*street people’, ‘cool people’, or simply ‘regulars’. 1969Guardian 24 May 1/3 The precincts inhabited by Berkeley's hippies and ‘street people’. 1972National Observer (U.S.) 27 May 7/2 There's evidence that methadone has become almost as popular as heroin among addicts. Street people say so. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 4 July 2-B/3 ‘At first, we got mostly street people,’ said Nyberg. ‘Lately our patients have begun to be from the higher social levels.’
1606*Street-porter [see tackle-house 1 b]. 1801Farmer's Mag. Jan. 32 If such meat can be digested by the..infirm in an alms-house, it could surely do no damage to the stronger organs of a street-porter. 1840Carlyle Heroes iii. (1841) 128 If, as Addison complains, you sometimes see a street-porter staggering under his load on spindleshanks.
1889Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Nov. 3/1 ‘Do you give ‘*street’ prices?’—‘No, we never do that. After the official prices close at half past three we continue to give the unofficial prices up to four o'clock, but never after the doors of the Exchange are closed.’ 1893Cordingley Guide Stock Exch. 23 Some business, too, is usually effected outside the Exchange, after the doors are closed; this is quoted in the newspapers as ‘In the Street’, or ‘Street Prices’.
1861Chamb. Jrnl. 29 June 416/1 The *street railways of the American cities. 1862D. W. Mitchell Ten Yrs. U.S. 265 A crowded street-railway car.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, What signifies what we were, ye *street-raking limmer!
1884St. James's Gaz. 11 Jan. 5/2 A new *street-refuge should be constructed.
1954Amer. Speech XXIX. 103 *Street rod (job, roadster, etc.), n. A hot rod suitable for street use, one of the competition types. The ‘street rod’ is distinguished from the ‘track car’, which is intended primarily for drag-strip or lakes racing. 1972World of Wild Wheels (Custom Car) 58/1 Street rods don't have to be American based—just tinged with American thought. 1977New Society 3 Mar. 436/2 Custom-car cruisers, in their glistening, overpowered improvisations... The monthly influx of around 250 ‘street rods’ causes a solid traffic jam.
1976Panorama (Austral.) Dec. 4 One of Australia's fastest-growing sports is *street rodding—turning pre-1948 cars into sparkling, high-performance vehicles which belie their age.
1711Addison Spect. No. 127 ⁋7 Our publick Ways would be so crowded that we should want *Street-room.
1924Glasgow Herald 8 Mar. 9 Where aerial invaders left ugly..scars in the *streetscape noble new buildings have already appeared. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Nov. 770/2 Giorgio Grassi and others have designed housing blocks as long arcaded streetscapes.
1870D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxvi. 407 The great..attraction among the multifarious *street scenes of London, is the Punch and Judy show. 1979N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Sept. 37/2 The girls' mother, Ada, is down on the stoop, watching the street scene as if it were television.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 1 May 5/1 Rizzo is tough, *street-smart, charming in his own special way. 1976N.Y. Times 9 Aug. 30 To be free, however, requires street-smarts, the cunning of the survivor. 1978Time 3 Apr. 61 Norris also sought out local black leaders and followed their street-smart advice. 1978New Yorker 20 Nov. 113 They thought always about winning, and, one way or another, they almost always did win. Like the A's, these Yankees have street-smarts. 1983Underground Grammarian VII. iii. 7/2 Frank will be demoted to the lowliest rank in education, teacher, so that those adaptable street-smart kids can go and apply their skills in her classroom.
1766Entick Lond. IV. 17 A wharf used for a laystall, to which the rakers carry *street-soil.
a1661Fuller Worthies, Kent (1662) 58 Many idle women who now onely spin *Street-thread (going tatling about with tales).
1945Finito! Po Valley Campaign (15th Army Group) 33 *Street-to-street battles. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 12 Nov. 10/3 She recalls the street-to-street fighting that became an everyday feature.
1911W. Solotaroff Shade-Trees in Towns & Cities p. ix, This book treats particularly of the planting and care of *street-trees. 1981Garden CVI. 443/2 They [sc. local authorities] might be persuaded to plant street trees.
1849Lever Con Cregan I. viii. 96 What a fellow am I..to discourse in this strain to a *street urchin. 1977Street urchin [see street-crossing, sense 4 b]. 1978J. Krantz Scruples vi. 168 Jake..had a droll and artful street-urchin look to him and typically Black Irish coloring.
1949Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers XXXIX. 261 *Street Villages (Strassendörfer), the name being used only for those villages which were founded on an existing route. 1974C. Taylor Fieldwork in Medieval Archaeol. vi. 142 Caxton..is now a long street village on either side of the Old North Road.
1940N. Last Diary Oct. Nella Last's War (1983) 78 Our *street warden called tonight... He wanted to know if we had buckets, stirrup-pumps, blankets, bandages, [etc.]. 1973Daily Tel. 8 Jan. 2/2 Mrs Green said her organisation wanted street wardens whose job ‘for perhaps {pstlg}1 a week’ would be to call on old people each morning. 1980Church Times 11 Apr. 6/4 Much is said about almost every activity that laypeople can undertake—forming a ‘Jesus gang’, personal witness, acting as street wardens, helping the bereaved, befriending the elderly.
1614Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue iv. 135 Nor trip from feast to feast, nor *Street-webs span, To see, and to be seen of every, man. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Spinning street-webs, walking about idly, gossiping from house to house. ‘She has nothing better to do than spinning street-webs.’
1965New Yorker 27 Mar. 78 A [social] worker therefore had to be wary as well as trustful, be security minded as well as loving, and be ‘*street-wise’ as well as compassionate. 1971N.T. Times 18 June 37 Take a dirt-poor Sicilian peasant kid fresh out of steerage. Make him scrappy and street-wise. 1977H. Fast Immigrants v. 321 Al Smith, street-wise Catholic from New York. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Aug. 867/5 The learned men on the council of the SPR were not, as we would say now, ‘street-wise’. 1981Daily Tel. 27 Nov. 16/2 Their [sc. young blacks'] values place a premium on being ‘street-wise’,..that is, being able to survive in the rough and tough world of the streets.
1964Maclean's Mag. 25 Jan. 23 Almost all of them have quit school. The *street⁓worker has become so friendly with them that he can sometimes return stolen goods before the police are even aware of the theft. 1973‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed xxi. 219 Adolescents..did not know how to react to the non-evaluative, non-judgmental approach of the street worker.
1855F. M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers xiv. (1883) 54 They say when she ain't a spinnin' *street yarn, she don't dew nothin' but write poitry.
Add: [c indigo][4.] [f.][/c] street chemist U.S. colloq., one who prepares and sells illegal drugs.
1977U.S. News & World Rep. 8 Aug. 65 Cheaper than heroin, the drug can be quickly made by ‘*street chemists’ using simple tools and easily obtained ingredients. 1985Los Angeles Times 5 Apr. i. 3/4 The doctors discovered that a street chemist had tried to make a synthetic version of the painkiller Demerol, but had overheated the batch and instead turned out a contaminated version.
street style orig. U.S., a style inspired by street culture (esp. in Fashion).
1981N.Y. Times 4 May c15/5 Garland Jeffreys's music and his stage personality reflect so many ethnic crosscurrents in *street styles that among contemporary pop figures he probably comes closer than anyone to embodying the essence of New York street life. 1983Times 25 Oct. 10/1 Our eclectic, eccentric British street style is a fashion inspiration. 1989Observer 24 Sept. 37/1 Street style is a misused phrase. It has come to mean anything avant-garde which turns up on the international catwalks.
▪ II. street, v.|striːt|
[f. street n.]
trans. To furnish or provide with streets, to lay out in streets. Also to street out, to lay out as a street or road.
1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. iv. 46 The chiefe citie..strieted with tentes and pauilions placed in good ordre. c1645Howell Lett. (1655) I. i. xii. 18 There are few places this side the Alps better built, and so well Streeted as this. 1760in Weekly Reporter (1877) XXV. 470 The said [allottees] shall street out the same way leading through their said respective allotments so that the same shall be made and ever after remain eleven yards broad at the least.
Hence ˈstreeted ppl. a.; ˈstreeting vbl. n.
1876Morris Sigurd iii. 201 Though a house of the windy battle their streeted burg be grown. 1889Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Apr. 1/3 The absence of any direct line..between Holborn and the Strand is the greatest blot in the present streeting of Central London. |