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Glite Dictionary
🥔 Without skin 🧢 A poor person 🧒 A street kid
pelado

pelado

9.9
A young person who lives or works on the streets
  • noun
  • Slang
translation icon : pelado
  • The pelado on the street was always trying to sell his handmade bracelets.

Examples

  • Since its release and appearance at the festival, Born in East L.A. has generated considerable interest among Chicano scholars who have elucidated Cheech Marin's role as the pelado and "Chicano Moses" of American popular film?

    Academic text (1995)

  • Many young pelados gather in the park to play soccer after school.

  • As a pelado in Buenos Aires, he navigated the city with confidence and street smarts.

Synonyms

muchacho
vspelado
  • US
4 7.9

A young man or boy in Spanish-speaking countries

is slang and implies streetwise or local toughness not just neutrality
mozo
vspelado
  • US
1 9.9

A young man or boy

is an Argentine slang term that adds streetwise connotations not present here
chango
vspelado
  • Slang
9.9

A boy or young man who is playful and causes trouble

is slang for a young person often seen as streetwise rather than playful

Surface Forms

pelado singular
pelados plural

Etymology

Pelado is used in Argentina for a young, often streetwise person. A helpful way to remember this is that pelado comes from pelar 'to peel' and old Latin pilus 'hair' — someone 'bare' or without protection, which fits the idea of a clever young person who grows up on the streets.