walk the streets

walk the streets

English

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.
   • 1874, Scribner's Monthly, May—October, page 127,

     The art of walking the streets, if it was ever known, is a lost art in America.

   • 2012, Lily O'Brien, The Girl Nobody Wants, Troubador Publishing (Matador), page 194,

     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, Chris Brady, Life Begins at 49, Xlibris, page 329,

     So after the Beatles bit we walked the streets of Hamburg for a while, amazed at the vibrancy of the place.

2. To be free to move about in a city or town.
   • 1951, New York Court of Appeals, Records and Briefs, New York Court of Appeals, page 546,

     Doctor, you have stated that you assumed that there are many people walking the streets who are neurotic.

   • 2007, Martha C. Reith, Highlights in History: 1900-1939, Remedia Publications, page 10,

     His business was crime, yet he walked the streets of Chicago with no fear of punishment.

3. (dated) To be unemployed; to be looking for work.
   • 1899, Documents of the City of Boston, Volume 3, Boston City Council, page 63,

     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.

   • 1913, Carpenter, Volumes 33-34, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, page 39,

     Trade conditions in Waco are dull just now and we have a number of our union men walking the streets.

   • 1921, Agnes Christina Laut, Canada at the Cross Roads, Macmillan Company of Canada, page 59,

     I hold a letter from an Imperial Veteran telling me "returned men who fought to save the empire are walking the streets of the Pacific Coast cities starving," […] .

4. To prostitute.