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)

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.
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.
(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," […] .
To prostitute.