Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) well-versed in the ways of the urban lifestyle as seen on the inner-city streets.

1977		G. Smitherman Talkin & Testifyin 103: We may classify black modes of discourse into the following broad categories: call-response; signification (of which the Dozens is a strictly secular, ‘streetified’ example); tonal semantics [etc.].
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1997		G. Alan-Williams Boys to Men 166: I took a moment [...] to get as much bass in my voice as possible before I spoke. ‘Why you wanna mess with me?’ I asked as streetified as I could.
2004		C.L. Keyes Rap Music & Street Consciousness 99: They said their listeners complained that its language and music were too coarse or ‘streetified’ for the airwaves.

see under beef n.²

acceptability on a mass cultural level.

1981		Guardian Weekly 6 Sept. 4/5: A couple of expressions have only come my way in the last month or so. One is ‘street wise’ and the other ‘street cred’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 11 July 26: The person with street cred [...] was one of the lads and lasses.
2007		L.B. Upshaw Truth 105: ‘Street cred’ — originally meaning the credibility (and respect) earned on the mean streets of urban centers — is about what’s real and trustworthy [...] where trust is often thought to be for children and fools.
2011		Times Mag. 30 Apr. 50/3: The buildings and the ghetto blaster at first sight suggest street-cred urban deprivation.
2012		Izikhotane News (S. Afr.) 23 May 🌐 To maintain street cred most will do what it takes [...] from petty crime to hardcore violence.
2017		Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 Apr. A15/4: I heard the same phrase uttered by [...] news pundits trying to claims some sort of millenial street cred.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 65: ‘I did a lot of dumb shit [...] for street cred’.

(US) illegal, but acceptable in the ‘real life’ context of the street.

1991		D. Simon Homicide (1993) 216: All of which is street legal. Reasonable deception, the courts call it.
2004		Simon & Pelecanos ‘Slapstick’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 9 [TV script] Makin’ the game street legal, takes the heart out of it.

1. a petty criminal who ‘works’ on the street, usu. as a drug dealer or pickpocket.

1910

‘O. Henry’ ‘Babes in the Jungle’ in Strictly Business (1915) 24: Montagur Silver, the finest street man and art grafter in the West.

2. (US black) a person who is wise in the ways of the street.

1980

J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 91: Red [...] is a clever and essentially principled ‘street man’.

(US) money earned on the street, usu. through drug-dealing, pickpocketing or prostitution.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 137: street money (late ’60s–’70) money earned from prostitution.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 38: Street money is the gain from drug dealing or from prostitution — or street walking.

see under nigger n.¹

(UK black) the street; the world of the street.

2000

N. Barlay Crumple Zone 3: This is streetside now. This ain’t no schoolyard.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(US black/drugs) to be involved in the use of and selling of crack cocaine.

1999

Indep. Rev. 6 Aug. 5: Lee is finding it a struggle and chances are he will ‘go street’, if only to survive.

(orig. US black) to spend one’s time in hedonistic self-indulgence, partying, drinking and enjoying the freedoms of a non-domestic life.

1941		C.S. Johnson Growing Up in the Black Belt 81: ‘Most of the other children’s parents let them run the streets’.
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 31: ‘[S]oon she’ll be good for nothing but running the streets’.
1976		D. Hall Dock Ellis 130: [H]is Pittsburgh life alternated between domesticity and running the streets.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 252: run the streets Frequent places other than home, church, school, and work.
1996		W.D. Myers Slam! 259: We had been aces for so long,had been playing ball and running the streets for so long.
2003		W.D. Myers Beast 46: ‘He runs the streets a lot, but he’s not really getting into anything too heavy’.
2010		W.D. Myers Lockdown 69: ‘[H]e’s running the streets too much. He’s either going to get himself killed or end up in jail’.

(US black) a member of the Black Muslims.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive.

see corner cowboy under corner n.²

see under grizzle v.

1. a form of hippie n.² (3), who wears the clothes but espouses more of a trad. begging ethic than that of the ‘love and peace’ generation.

1971		Manchester Guardian Weekly 3 Apr. 6: The existence of a student society enables street people to live virtually free.
1973		J. Wambaugh Onion Field 3: Most of the famous clubs had closed, the others were closing, and Hollywood was being left to the street people.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 401: It was 2:00 a.m. when they dropped us off. A lot of the street people were right there. They were trying to sell you sex, drugs, whatever.

2. a homeless person.

1991

B. McCarthy Vice Cop 41: This is a cop-hater’s bar [...] All these people start filing out of the bar—they’re winos, street people, buzzards, lowlifes [...] Scumbags, street urchins.

see under pitcher n.²

1. (US black) debris, a smashed-up mess.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 13: Snag all our boards for some car come by an run ’em into street pizza!

2. see pavement pizza under pizza n.

see under rat n.¹

(US) a riot gun, usu. a shotgun with a wide blast and thus used to disperse a mob.

1991		Geto Boys ‘Another Nigger In The Morgue’ 🎵 I’ll be forced to hit ya wit the street sweeper.
1994		Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act [18 U.S.C. 921(a) (30)] 🌐 [...] revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12.
2004		City of Newark (NJ) 11 May 🌐 Holding a ‘Streetsweeper’ shotgun, James said, ’These are terrible weapons.’.
2012		Lil Wayne ‘Amen’ 🎵 I’ve got a street sweeper, do you need your street cleaned?
2016		Guardian G2 1 Sept. 25/2: street sweeper — a gun.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] A man in head-to-toe black tactical gear rushed into the house, his Street Sweeper automatic with suppressor leveled and ready.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 203: ‘Give me the heater and you keep the street sweeper’.

gossip, rumour.

2003

San Diego Union Trib. 23 Oct. 🌐 ‘The street talk is that large numbers (of people) are being hacked away at nationwide lenders,’ he said.

by a long way.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Oct. 16/3: Then, when the defaulter had been arrested, tried and gaoled, Fate, the humorist, let the horse win by a street at first time of asking! Heaven’s punishment – or the devil’s luck; according to point of view.
1962		Times 5 Nov. 4/1: Oxford [...] could have won by a street before half time.
1977		Time Out 17–23 June 65/5: The Scots should win the drinking by a street.
1982		Age Monthly Rev. (Melbourne) Mar. 11/3: Any label embracing such a wide range of usage is too wide by a street [OED].

1. (orig. US) to leave, to go out for the night.

1911		Poultry Item 13 144/2: We soon hit the streets of Milwaukee and we stopped at some big place which Teck called a summer garden. It certainly was nice.
1929		T. Gordon Born to Be (1995) 203: After the show, we hit the streets again. . . . Never in my life have I seen so many people piling out of theatres.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 202: The higher-up hands out orders to the cop and the guy hits the streets.
1953		T. Williams Camino Real Block Twelve: Nursie, give me my glamour wig and my forty-five. I’m hitting the street!
1962		(con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 279: I said what I thought they wanted to hear so I could hit the street sooner.
1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 68: hit the street v. to leave one’s house or place of residence for the evening, often to go out on the town.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 64: I’m hitting the streets to find the motherfucker who killed Flip’s momma.

2. (US prison) to return to free society.

1933		Case Studies in Psychopathology of Crime 1 527: As soon as these men hit the streets and freedom, they forget all their bitterness toward anyone; forget that they were in trouble till they are locked up again.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 339: She’s a new turn-out. She only got six months. She and Frankie should hit the street about the same time.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 107: Hit the Streets To be released from prison. (Archaic: kick out).
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 9: Next time I run I’m gonna make it. Hit the street and buy some new ones [i.e. shoes].
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 61: he and his buddies had been rounded up in the nineties by the Feds [...] Some of them were beginning to hit the streets again.

(US) to engage in a gun battle on the street (with the implication that one would rather die than face prison).

[1944		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 19 Aug. 12A: [of a conversation] Ray (Sugar) Robinson [...] was holding court on the sidewalk].
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 216: ‘Come on outside, we’ll hold court,’ one said.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 166: If you should have to hold court in the streets with the cops.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 77: If they do [i.e. the police appear] you gotta hold court in the streets.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 228: If the shit floods the fan I’m gonna go down right there. Hold court in the street.
2001		P. Gourevitch Cold Case (2002) 187: He had worn his gun [...] thinking, If something comes up, we’ll hold court right there.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Not that he didn’t think he’d ever get caught, but he had vowed to hold court in the streets if he was ever faced with such a situation.

see in the same box under box n.¹

(US black) in the open, in public.

1982		W.D. Myers Won’t Know Till I Get There 75: Santini’s business is in the street. He wants to shack with Esther Cruz.
1999		W.D. Myers Monster 180: petrocelli When did you find out that Mr. Nesbitt, the drugstore owner, was dead? boboThe word was in the street that night.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 43: It’s all in the street about your problems.
2012		W.D. Myers Cruisers: A Star is Born 40: ‘LaShonda said she was just going to [...] walk away from the whole deal because she doesn’t want her business all out there in the street’.

(US) to work as a street prostitute.

1947

N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 48: That’s what I get for playing the streets.

1. (orig. US) to make gossip, information etc. available for general consumption.

1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 192: Russel looked sheepish [...] ‘I’m not trying to put your business in the street’.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 39: To put it on the street is an expression for disclosing usually damaging information for the rumor network.
2003		W.D. Myers Beast 47: Brian wouldn’t like me putting his name in the street, but I decided I would.

2. (US und.) for an illegal moneylender to lend money at interest.

2000		Lehr & O’Neill Black Mass 26: Boston [...] would be one of the few cities where persistent Irish gangs would coexist by putting Mafia loan-shark money out on the streets of their neighborhood.
2000		P. Earley Super Casino 229: ‘I even started putting some money out on the street myself. It was okay as long as you had less than fifty thousand on the street. If you were doing more than that, you had to pay off the mob guys’.

3. (US drugs) to retail drugs at street level.

2016

Barer et al. Betrayal in Blue 154: Gordo cut up the heroin, packaged it, and put it on the street.

(US) to take a private conflict or issue into the public arena.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 31: Instead of saying one of the boys made it, no, they got to get mad; that jive Carlito, he ain't shit, when’s the last time he took to the street with a cat .
2003		RapNewsDirect 7 Nov. 🌐 ‘Beef is good,’ Cube told us. ‘It makes hip hop interesting. But they shouldn’t take it to the street, they should keep it on wax.’.