Word.ws English Dictionary

on the streets

on the streets is the alternative form of on the street.

Meaning of on the street

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Without a home; without the means to afford good shelter.
    • We haven't been able to pay rent for five months. Next month we'll be on the street.
  2. (idiomatic) In public, including daily life and the crime that sometimes occurs there; especially, in the world of street crime and those whose daily life is immersed in it.
    • At that time, a greenback was worth more on the street than it was at the foreign exchange office.
  3. (idiomatic) In actual practice, as opposed to in a laboratory, classroom, etc.
    • These students are eager to test their knowledge on the street instead of in the exam book.
  4. (idiomatic) Working as a sex worker.
    • Times got a little desperate and she was on the street for a while.
  5. Publicly known
    • She put it on the street, so now everyone knows.
  6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, street.
    • The pavement markings on the street were confusing to foreigners.

Questions about on the streets

What is on the streets the alternative form of?
On the streets is the alternative form of on the street.

Words near on the streets in the dictionary

  1. on the square
  2. on the stand
  3. on the stock
  4. on the stocks
  5. on the street
  6. on the streets
  7. on the strength of
  8. on the stroke of
  9. on the stump
  10. on the surface
  11. on the table

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the streets (page history and authors); on the street (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the streets.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_streets. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.