Street sb.

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. strâȥa (mod.G. strasse). ON. (from OE.) strǽti str. neut. (Da. stræde), MSw. strâta fem. (mod.Sw. stråt masc.) from MLG.; MSw. had also strāte 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. sràia) was adopted from late Latin.]

  † 1.  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, stiʓ wisode gumum ætgædere.

847.  Charter, xx. in O. E. Texts, 434. Ðonon on ða lytlan burʓ westewearde ðonon to stræte.

c. 1205.  Lay., 4839. Þat wha swa i þen stræten [c. 1275 stredes] braken grið Þe king him wolde bi-nimen his lif.

c. 1250.  Owl & Night., 962. Wenestu þat wise men forlete Vor fule venne þe rihte strete.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 172. Fram þe souþ tilþ to þe norþ erninge stret, & fram est to þe west ykenilde stret.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 13311. He passed hilles, wode, & playn, Til þey com þer þe stret lay hey.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 105. And riȝt as syȝte serueth a man to se þe heighe strete.

c. 1405.  Bidding Prayer, in Lay Folks Mass Bk. (1879), 65. For thaim that brigges and stretes makes and amendes.

1564.  Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), 264. Being one thoroughffare towne of the Kinges strete ledyng from London to Karliel.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxvii. 98. The Male knot grasse groweth in fieldes about wayes and pathes, and in streates.

1606.  in N. Riding Rec. (1884), I. 50. The Kinges Ma^ties street called Nunhouse Lane.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 397. The publike Street commonly called Watlingstreet.

1903.  J. Conrad & 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.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xiii. 4. Mið ðy saues ðorlease ʓefeollon neh vel æt stræt vel woeʓ [L. secus viam].

a. 1200.  Moral Ode, in Lamb. Hom., 179. Laete we þe brode stret, and þe wei bene.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6182. Ar philistiens suld wit þam mete And lett þam for to wend þair strete.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter xxii. 3. He led me on þe stretis of rightwisnes [Vulg. super semitas iusticiæ].

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems (1897), vi. 56. A bare now has him soght … Þat es ful wele bithoght To stop Philip, þe strate.

c. 1366.  Chaucer, A. B. C., 70. Than makest thou his pees with his sovereyn, And bringest him out of the crooked strete.

1481.  Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 55. Tho wente be his strete, tho flewe I doun.

1535.  Coverdale, Prov. xv. 10. He that forsaketh y^e right strete, shalbe sore punyshed.

c. 1510.  Lyt. Geste Robin Hood, 81. But as they loked in Barnysdale By a derne strete Then came there a knyght rydynge.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneis, II. (1557), D j b. For while I ran by the most secret stretes … From me oatir, alas, bereued was Creusa then my spouse.

  † c.  In alliterative association with sty, stile.

c. 1205.  Lay., 16366. Bi stiȝen & by straten.

a. 1300.  in Wright, Anecd. Lit. (1844), 96. Love hath his stivart by sti and by strete.

c. 1425.  Cast. Perseverance, 353. Werldis wele, be strete & stye, Faylyth & fadyth, as fysch in flode. Ibid., 404. Cum a-gayn be strete & style!

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., ii. 365. And where so any man may me meyte, Ayther bi sty, or yit bi strete.

  2.  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 carriage way. Also, the road together with the adjacent houses.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. vi. 5. Standende on ʓe-somnungum & stræta hyrnum [L. in angulis platearum].

c. 1200.  Ormin, 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.

c. 1382.  Wyclif, Luke xiv. 21. Go out soone in to grete stretis and smale streetis of the citee [Vulg. in plateas et vicos civitatis].

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiv. 152. Þe stretez er paued with swilk maner of stanes.

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 534. Now hath þis lord but litil neede of broomes To swepe a-way þe filthe out of þe street.

c. 1450.  Capgrave, St. Gilbert, xxvii. 101. Þe smale townes had no dwelleres, þe wallis were falle down and stretes distroyed.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxxxii. 37. Tailyouris, soutteris, and craftis vyll, The fairest of your streitis dois fyll.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, lxviii. 235. They lodged in the strete next to the palays.

1575.  Churchyard, 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.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. v. 32. My Master … sent to her seeing her go thorough the streets, to know (Sir) whether [etc.].

1598.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., IV. i. (1601), I 1. I slidde downe by a bottome of packthread into the streete, and so scapt.

1611.  Proclam. Building Lond., 3 Aug. At the least the forefront … thereof … looking towards the street or streetes [to] bee wholly built of Bricke.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 308. When they come to the crossing of a street, the Corps stayes.

1758.  Johnson, Idler, No. 53, ¶ 3. A convenient house in a street.

1798.  Monthly Mag., March, 181/2. Broadway is undoubtedly the handsomest street in America.

1834.  Lytton, Pompeii, I. ii. The two young men sauntered through the streets.

1877.  Law 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.

1880.  Disraeli, 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.

1885.  Act 48 Vict., c. 17 § 13. The lists of voters may be made out either alphabetically or by streets.

1889.  Act 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., Pa·rk-street with Pa·rk-la·ne, Pa·rk-roa·d.

c. 1275[?].  in 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.

1457.  Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 296. For Seynt Thomas ys stret.

1513.  More, Rich. III., Wks. 53/1. Crosbies place in Bishops-gates strete.

1531.  Tindale, Expos. 1 John (1537), 60. Though thou were anoynted with al the oyle in teames strete.

1842.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 200/1. [Rate of acclivity] 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’).

1526.  Tindale, Acts xvii. 19. They brought hym into Marce strete.

1579.  W. 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.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. xviii. (1614), 435. It seemed to bee, as it were, a continued street of Shippes.

1662.  Trenchfield, 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.].

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 1 Jan. 1684. The weather continuing intolerably severe, streetes of booths were set upon the Thames.

1725.  De 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.

1855.  Dickens, 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.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 382. Then roase the streete, namely the youth, and they woulde haue had him out of the Bishoppes house.

1620.  Middleton, Chaste Maid, V. 66. All the whole Street will hate vs, and the World Point me out cruell.

1712.  Arbuthnot, 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 overturn’d.

1856.  Chamb. Jrnl., 12 Jan., 26/1. There was a mystery about him which the whole street had tried its skill in fathoming.

1894.  A. 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.

c. 1430.  Lydg., 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.].

1598.  Barret, Theor. Warres, IV. iv. 113. The shot … arriuing, do open, making a lane or streete, betwixt the which the Pikes do enter.

1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Camp, The tents are placed in rows … with spaces between them, called streets.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, III. viii. I was ushered through an actual street of servitors … into a large and crowded saloon.

1829.  Shipp, Mem., II. 132–3. 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.

1883.  Daily 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.

1555.  Eden, trans. 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.]

1563.  Gresham, 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].

1746.  P. Francis, trans. Horace, Ep., I. i. 77. This maxim echoes through the bankers’ street.

1863.  Kimball, Undercurrents, 131 (Flügel). Sufficient of the two millions [could be] launched on the street.

1883.  Nation (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.

1888.  C. 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.

1895.  Daily News, 11 Jan., 7/1. After a weak opening South African shares improved,… and … the tone in the ‘Street’ this evening appeared firm.

1912.  Daily Tel., 19 Dec., 2/3. Americans were idle throughout, with a slightly firmer appearance in the street.

1929.  Daily News (N.Y.), 28 Oct., 14/1. The Street expects a record breaking decrease in brokers’ loans and there is also an excellent possibility that the New York Federal Reserve bank will lower its rediscount rate.

  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.

c. 1200.  [see 2].

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2772. He praid þam … þai wald to gestening com hame,… and þai said nai, bot in the stret þar duell wald þai.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4546. Þan sal þair bodys … In þe stretes ligg stille thre days And an half,… For na man sal þam dur biry.

a. 1430.  Sev. Sages (Cott. Galba), 1556. Þe dore ful stalworthly he sperd … And lete his whif stand in þe strete.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 193. Anoþer tyme, as he walkyd yn þe strete, he herd a womon cry trauelyng on chyld.

1581.  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.

1582.  Allen, Martyrdom Campion (1908), 118. He was apprehended in the streats of London ready to goe over to the seminarie at Remes.

1752.  A. Stewart in Scots Mag. (1753), Sept., 447/1. The deponent … met William Stewart upon the street.

1827.  Carlyle, Germ. Rom., II. 160. I have seen him on the street. Ibid. (1837), Fr. Rev., III. I. v. He recognized me on the streets and spoke to me, seven months after.

1861.  Two Cosmos, III. ii. I. 280. This town-officer has stopped me on the street, pretending that I owe an account to Mr. Donald Caird.

1866.  Sala, Trip to Barbary, 89. The concourse thinned not on the streets or in the Port.

1883.  C. 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.

1883.  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.

1883.  G. P. Lathrop, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 338/2. Thirty years ago Cymric was heard commonly on the street.

  b.  On the streets (Sc.): turned out of doors, homeless.

1852.  J. 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.

  c.  To be on the streets: to be a prostitute. Hence, the street(s as designating a life of prostitution.

[1728:  see f.]

1750.  Johnson, 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.

1754.  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.

1802.  H. 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.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 60. Two girls, who … had been forced to go upon the streets to gain a living.

1885.  Daily 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.

1886.  Baring-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.

1905.  Miss Broughton, Waif’s Progr., i. 6. ‘If we refuse the girl, what is the alternative?’ ‘None, apparently, but the streets.’

  d.  Up street, down street (vulgar): in or towards the upper or lower part of the street.

1876.  Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., xxiii. A retired miller who had died of dropsy ‘up street.’

1890.  W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister? 115. We’ve some chaps bad down street after that little kick up at the Irish affairs meeting.

  † e.  To weep full a sireet: ‘to fill a street with one’s tears,’ to weep immoderately. Obs.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 929. What helpeth it to wepen ful a strete, Or though ye bothe in salte teres dreynte?

  f.  To walk the street(s: to go about on foot in a town. Also with reference as in c.

1606.  N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, K 3 b. Each swaggering Ruffin now that walk’s the streetes, Proud as Lucifer, stabbeth whom he meetes.

1709.  Hearne, in Lett. Eminent Persons (1813), I. 193. There has been a person in Oxford, who saw her walk the street since this amazing accident.

1714.  Budgell, trans. Theophrastus, xxiv. 69. When he walks the Streets, he never Condescends to look about him, or to know any one he meets.

1728.  Pope, Dunc., I. 230. While all your smutty sisters walk the streets. Ibid. (1735), Sat. Donne, II. 73. For you he walks the streets thro’ rain or dust.

1753.  Jane 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.

1858.  O. 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.

1908.  S. E. White, Riverman, xvii. The remainder of the time he spent walking the streets and reading in the club rooms.

  g.  The man in the street: the ordinary man, as distinguished from the expert or the man who has special opportunities of knowledge.

1831.  Greville, Mem., 22 March (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.

1854.  Emerson, 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. Ibid. (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, ‘Colden got a stipend out of it.’ [Frequent in Emerson.]

1868.  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.’

1898.  J. E. C. Bodley, 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.

1900.  Fairbairn, 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.

  h.  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.

1883.  Mrs. E. Kennard, Right Sort, xx. 240. Nevertheless, though not in the same street with King Olaf, it won’t do to estimate Singing Bird’s chance too lightly.

1884.  G. 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.

1893.  Kennel 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.

1898.  Westm. Gaz., 1 Feb., 6/3. The English are better photographers than the Americans, but as regards mechanical ingenuity … the latter are streets ahead.

1912.  Throne, 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.

1927.  Times, 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.

  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-beggar, † -beggary, -crier, -cry, -fight, -life, music, -musician, -noise, -orator, -robber, robbery, † -scuffler, -seller, -shrine, -singer, -singing, -talk, trade.

1713.  Steele, Guardian, No. 144, ¶ 1. Our very *Street Beggars are not without their peculiar Oddities.

1625.  Donne, Serm., lxv. (1640), 659. That *street-beggery, which is become a Calling.

1847.  Lever, Knt. Gwynne, xxxv. With the sing-song intonation of a *street-crier.

1874.  All Year Round, 14 Feb., 372. The London *street cries which we find recorded in old books.

1851–61.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 29. The result of some *street-fight. Ibid. (1851), I. 327. This is a trade associated with *street-life rather than forming an integrant part of it.

1884.  Phillipps-Wolley, Trottings of Tenderfoot, 210. Which to me were the great feature of the town’s street-life.

1841.  C. Knight, Lond., I. 141. De la Serre … is enthusiastic in his praises of the *street music of London.

1839.  Act 2 & 3 Vict., c. 47 § 57. To require any *Street Musician to depart from the Neighbourhood of the House.

1841.  C. Knight, Lond., I. 129. *Street noises.

1780.  Ann. Reg., II. 23. At Rome, those *street-orators sometimes entertain their audience with interesting passages of real history.

1728.  [De Foe], Street-Robberies Consider’d, 25. I soon got into a very good new acquaintance, viz. Thieves, Highwaymen, Shoplifters, House-breakers and *Street-Robbers. Ibid., 59. Another Reason of the Frequency of *Street Robberies, is the Remissness or Corruption of the Watch.

1772.  Nugent, trans. Grosley’s Tour Lond., I. 87. The state of nature, a state with which the *street-scufflers of London are closely connected.

1827.  Hone, Table Bk., I. 685. The man … was a *street seller of hobbyhorses.

1911.  J. Ward, Roman Era in Brit., vii. 119. The Pompeian *street shrines were as varied as the domestic.

1841.  C. Knight, Lond., I. 144. The *street-singers of Paris.

1624.  Heywood, Captives, II. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Hee had too handsome *streete-singing-fact lasses in his companye.

1826.  Lamb, Pop. Fallacies, xii. The casual *street-talk between a poor woman and her little girl.

1841.  C. Knight, Lond., I. 139. Of the *street trades that are past and forgotten, the smallcoal-man was one of the most remarkable.

  b.  attrib. with the sense ‘of or pertaining to a street or streets,’ as street-corner, -directory, -end, -lamp, -length, -name, -side. Also street-like adj., street-wise adv.

1841.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxvi. They alighted at the *street-corner.

1909.  C. Elsee, Neoplatonism, Pref. p. v. The crowd that listens to the street-corner preacher of materialism.

1817.  A. Johnstone (title), The London commercial guide and *street directory.

1864.  Burton, Scot Abr., I. iii. 109. Names familiar to us now … in street-directories had been found among the dead at Poitiers.

1904.  A. 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.

1870–4.  J. Thomson, City Dreadf. Nt., I. vi. The *street-lamps always burn.

1874.  Longf., Sonn., Summer day by Sea, 6. From the dim headlands many a lighthouse gleams, The street-lamps of the ocean.

1910.  Spectator, 9 July, 51/2. They may be *street-lengths from it, but it is sure to find them.

1595.  E. C., Emaricdulfe, Sonn. xxi. in Lamport Garl. (Roxb.). Through *street-like straight hie-waies I did attempt.

1861.  Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Nov., 337. (art.) *Street Names.

1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 22. The gate be the *strete syde.

1538–9.  Act 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.

1911.  J. Ward, Roman Era in Brit., vii. 116. Along the street-side were the remains of a narrow building about 64 ft. long with a plain mosaic pavement and an apse at its east end.

1911.  Webster, *Streetwise, adv., after the manner of a street.

  c.  objective, as street-cleaner, -cleaning, -layer, -lighting, -pacing adj., -sweeper, -sweeping.

1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xi. 111. A few *street-cleaners were leisurely working, a few milkmen were hurrying from door to door.

1896.  J. Barnes, in Harper’s Mag., June, 149/1. What do you think of the new *Street-Cleaning Department?

a. 1893.  W. Burns Thomson, Remin. (1895), 78. He had been much exposed from his calling as a *street-layer.

1784.  Cowper, Tiroc., 217. There waiter Dick … His counsellor and bosom-friend shall prove, And some *street-pacing harlot his first love.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxv. If she … made a curtsey to a *street-sweeper.

1871.  Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), II. 174. I mean, on 1st January next, to take three street-sweepers into constant service.

1843.  Builder, 18 Feb., 21/3. [Description of the] Patent Self-Loading Cart, or *Street-Sweeping Machine.

1849.  A. 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, -sold adjs.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack, i. Sharp as a *street-bred boy must be, but ignorant and unteachable from a child.

1892.  Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, 174. The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag.

1851.  Mayhew, 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.

1828.  Miss 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.  Special comb.: street-Arab (also written with small a), a homeless vagrant (usually a child) living in the streets (see ARAB sb. 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-coach, a hackney-coach; street-dirt = street-manure; street-dog, an ownerless dog living in the streets; street-farer nonce-wd., one who passes through the streets; street-firing, discharge of musketry in order to defend or scour a street; † street-gadder, one who ‘gads’ about 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-parlo(u)r, a sitting-room on the ground-floor, fronting 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 sb. 3; street-room, sufficient space in the streets; street-soil (? obs.) = street-manure; † street-thread = street-web; street-urchin, a mischievous little street-boy; street-web (now dial.), see quot. 1854; street-yarn U.S. = prec.

1865.  Littledale, Cath. Ritual Ch. Eng., 8. How can we most easily get a half-savage *street-Arab … to understand that there is [etc.].

1875.  Punch, 6 March, 108/2. Irregular crossing-sweepers, unlicensed boot-cleaners, and street-Arabs generally.

1892.  Mrs. H. Ward, David Grieve, II. vii. He strode on just in time to avoid a flight of street-arabs.

1759.  Dilworth, Pope, 80. Such as the lowest political pamphlets, the meanest *street-ballads glancing at state-affairs or the church established.

1851.  D. Jerrold, St. Giles, ii. 9. A voice was heard … droning a street-ballad of the day.

1862.  Burton, Bk. Hunter, 31. He opens the door, and fetches in the little stranger. What can it be? a *street-boy of some sort?

1834.  Dickens, 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.].

a. 1712.  Fountainhall, 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.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxv. ‘No, sir,’ said Jeanie; ‘a friend brought me in ane o’ their street coaches—a very decent woman.’

1765.  Museum Rust., IV. 373. He has seen it [coleseed] yield good crops on a dry chalky soil, on which *street-dirt had been laid.

1873.  Leland, Egypt. Sketch-Bk., 228. Nobody looked at it but I and a *street-dog.

1911.  Contemp. Rev., July, 27. We have got rid of the street dogs in Constantinople.

1880.  W. Watson, Prince’s Quest (1892), 51. As one who cared no-wise to make fast his ears Against the babble of the *street farers.

1763.  Brit. 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.

1790.  Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 97. The grenadiers … having, with very little loss, received two fires from the enemy, they began a street firing.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. iii. Neither have the Gardes Françaises, the best regiment of the line, shown any promptitude for street-firing lately.

1577.  Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep., 309. His wife is a seeker of kinred, a gossip, a *streete gadder.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Wom. Pleased, II. iii. For you Lady, Ile have your Lodgings farther off, and closer, Ile have no *street-lights to you.

1906.  B’ness Von Hutten, What became of Pam, 212. The street-lights burst like great flowers into the dusk.

1844.  Stephens, 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.

1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 39. The earl sat in the *street-parlour.

1606.  *Street-porter [see TACKLE-HOUSE 1 b].

1801.  Farmer’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.

1840.  Carlyle, Heroes, iii. (1841), 128. If, as Addison complains, you sometimes see a street-porter staggering under his load on spindleshanks.

1889.  Pall 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.’

1893.  Cordingley, 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.’

1861.  Chamb. Jrnl., 29 June, 416/1. The *street railways of the American cities.

1862.  D. W. Mitchell, Ten Yrs. U.S., 265. A crowded street-railway car.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. What signifies what we were, ye *street-raking limmer!

1884.  St. James’s Gaz., 11 Jan., 5/2. A new *street-refuge should be constructed.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 127, ¶ 7. Our publick Ways would be so crowded that we should want *Street-room.

1766.  Entick, London, IV. 17. A wharf used for a laystall, to which the rakers carry *street-soil.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Kent (1662), 58. Many idle women who now onely spin *Street-thread (going tatling about with tales).

1849.  Lever, Con Cregan, I. viii. 96. What a fellow am I … to discourse in this strain to a *street urchin.

1614.  Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, IV. 135. Nor trip from feast to feast, nor *Street-webs span, To see, and to be seen of every, man.

1854.  Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Spinning street-webs, walking about idly, gossiping from house to house. ‘She has nothing better to do than spinning street-webs.’

1855.  Mrs. 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.