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^[1], 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, Canada: Macmillan Company, 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.