Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
cross street

cross street

4 2.6
A street that crosses a main road at a corner
  • noun
  • /krɔs strit/
: calle transversal
  • What's the nearest cross street?
  • nearest cross street
  • cross streets intersecting
  • car on a cross street

And there were men riding bicycles in both directions, on one way Clinton and on the cross streets, some with bike laps, most without, most without.

Examples

  • The bakery is located at the corner of Main Avenue and the cross street.

  • Both cross streets are one-way.

    Captain America: Civil War (2016)

  • When we got to the first cross street, he stopped.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • As much as possible, avoid cross streets.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Finding a major cross street, she made her way to the freeway and headed home.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Inbound buses will be making stops at the major cross streets all the way.

    Blog text (33)

  • At every major cross street, it holds a cluster of restaurants, nightclubs, shops, and everything else.

    Blog text (20)

  • Walls turns onto a cross street, spots Noel standing by a Mustang with a baseball bat on his shoulder.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The cabman whips the horses, and the droshky disappears into the nearest cross street.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Invariably, the plan of the new town was orthogonal, with two wide right-angled cross streets intersecting at a large central piazza.

    Academic text (1994)

Surface Forms

cross street singular
cross streets plural

Morphology

cross + street

The meaning 'a street that intersects a main street' is directly derived from combining 'cross' (transverse, lying across) with 'street' (a public road); the adjective+noun composition yields a straightforward spatial sense. This is a common compositional pattern cross-linguistically and would be readily understood by a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

The noun cross street comes from the simple image of a street that crosses a main road at a corner, running on both sides of it. That's why people ask for a 'cross street' when they want to know which road meets the main road.