Word.ws English Dictionary

walk the streets

walk the streets verb: to walk about in a city or town, especially as an activity in itself.

Verb

walk the streets (third-person singular simple present walks the streets, present participle walking the streets, simple past and past participle walked the streets)

  1. To walk about in a city or town, especially as an activity in itself.
    • The art of walking the streets, if it was ever known, is a lost art in America.1874, Scribner's Monthly, May—October, page 127
    • At first, I just spent most of the day walking the streets, pushing my baby around with me from one sister's house to another.2012, Lily O'Brien, The Girl Nobody Wants, Troubador Publishing (Matador), page 194
  2. To be free to move about in a city or town.
    • Doctor, you have stated that you assumed that there are many people walking the streets who are neurotic.1951, New York Court of Appeals, Records and Briefs, New York Court of Appeals, page 546
    • His business was crime, yet he walked the streets of Chicago with no fear of punishment.2007, Martha C. Reith, Highlights in History: 1900-1939, Remedia Publications, page 10
  3. (dated) To be unemployed; to be looking for work.
    • Probably at the age of eleven, when he should be at school, he is driven into the workshop and a journeyman is allowed to walk the streets, because a great deal that he does can be done by the apprentice.1899, Documents of the City of Boston, Volume 3, Boston City Council, page 63
    • Trade conditions in Waco are dull just now and we have a number of our union men walking the streets.1913, Carpenter, Volumes 33-34, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, page 39
  4. To prostitute.

Forms of walk the streets

third-person singular presentwalks the streets
present participlewalking the streets
past participlewalked the streets
pastwalked the streets

Questions about walk the streets

What does walk the streets mean?
Walk the streets means to walk about in a city or town, especially as an activity in itself.
What part of speech is walk the streets?
Walk the streets is a verb.
What is the past tense of walk the streets?
The past tense of walk the streets is walked the streets.

Words near walk the streets in the dictionary

  1. walk the floor
  2. walk the gangplank
  3. walk the hospitals
  4. walk the line
  5. walk the plank
  6. walk the streets
  7. walk the talk
  8. walk the walk
  9. walk through
  10. walk turkey
  11. walk with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: walk the streets (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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