walk the streets

present singular third person walks the streets · participle present walking the streets · participle past walked the streets · past 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

   2 more examples

   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

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

   2012, Chris Brady, Life Begins at 49, Xlibris, page 329

2. To be free to move about in a city or town.

   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.

   1 more example

   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

3. datedTo be unemployed; to be looking for work.

   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

   2 more examples

   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

   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,"[…].

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

4. To prostitute.