high street
- noun
- /haɪ striːt/
- UK
- I live in Cambridge, UK, and we're a university town with only two high street bookshops, which is just depressing.
- high street banks
It was so good to just go back and shop on the High Street.
- It was so good to just go back and shop on the High Street.
- I decided to hit the High Street.
- We've got the high end, we've got the High Street, we've got shoes, we've got accessories, we've got coats.
- Kensington High Street in those days was a go to place for shopping.
- Most people that walk down the street, the High Street, can't talk and chew gum at the same time.
- I know that in North America, Europe, these kind of countries, the High Street is full of of fast fashion stores.
- But I just thought this dress was so beautiful and just such a steal for the High Street.
- There's no, I'm the only British High Street bank in the running at the minute that's trying to open on the High Street.
- The problem is not people needing to buy a High Street blouse once or twice or three times a year because that is what they can afford.
- So he's so chuffed that we're going to go now to the High Street.
- And if you think about your High Street, most of the shops are selling sugar, caffeine or highly processed foods for this very reason.
- I choose naked as that moment when you're walking down Athens High Street and you're elastic on your knickers pings and your pants fall down.
- Rimmel lipsticks are one of my favorite High Street lipsticks to buy.
- So most obviously there are the shops on the High Street, there are the office blocks, there's a lot of skyscrapers here, office blocks people live in.
Examples
-
The high street is bustling with shoppers on the weekend.
-
The air is damp and misty, and the high street is gray, with pockets of harsh lighting and occasional neon.
Fiction book (1994) -
Here, you will find lots of high street fashion.
-
We should head up the high street.
-
A new Chinese opened in the high street.
-
The wind is blowing down the high street.
-
Kensington High Street in those days was a go to place for shopping.
-
Just because a store has been there for years doesn't mean that it's the best on the high street.
Blog text (34) -
Going down the High Street, you can't fail to notice the pride that employers have in British products.
-
If you can't afford a good luxury designer bag, buy a smart bag from a high street store.
Blog text (3)
Synonyms
A public road in a town or city with buildings and sidewalks
The main road in a town where most shops and businesses are
A street in a town where most shops and restaurants are
A main road used by many cars to travel between places
Antonyms
How Commercial
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'main commercial street' is partly derivable because one reading of 'high' is 'important' or 'principal', so combined with 'street' it can be interpreted as the town's principal road. However, this is a conventional British usage and could be misread literally (e.g. 'tall' or 'elevated' street) or differ from equivalent terms in other languages, so the relation is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
High street may come from towns where the main road stood on higher ground or was the most important road, so the words high and street showed the town's main market road. That's why today high street means the town's 'main shopping street'.