street smarts
6
5.6
- noun
- Informal
:
inteligencia callejera
- To survive in the city, you need to develop street smarts to handle any dangerous situations.
- a lot of street smarts
- street smarts and talent
- street smarts vs. book smarts
Examples
-
I'll admit it, Jimmy was a better athlete, but I had all the street smarts.
-
Sweetback finally heads for Mexico, using his street smarts to elude his pursuers.
Academic text (2017) -
Use your street smarts; it's really, really, really not hard to stay safe on those paths.
Blog text (25) -
He has zero street smarts.
-
What Spider lacked in moral clarity, he made up for in street smarts.
-
The problem with too many of our conservative and libertarian candidates is a severe lack of street smarts.
Blog text (18) -
I hope Ishmael has enough street smarts to get to Reno by himself.
-
Using her Brooklyn street smarts, Betsy fights like a pro.
Fiction book (1990) -
Being able to defend oneself also includes situational awareness and a good dose of street smarts.
Blog text (6) -
He gained his street smarts growing up on the mean cul-de-sacs of a master-planned community in Omaha, Neb.
Blog text (17)
Synonyms
Useful knowledge needed to survive and fit into street life
Practical cleverness for solving everyday problems
Learning practical skills and wisdom from life and real problems rather than from school
Antonyms
How Street-Smart
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'practical knowledge for handling urban/dangerous situations' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'street' (urban environment) with 'smarts' (practical cleverness). This compositional sense is predictable and cross-linguistically plausible, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Street smarts comes from the idea of learning life on the city street, where quick thinking and common sense—the smarts—help you avoid danger. So, 'street smarts' means the 'practical knowledge' to handle dangerous or difficult situations in the city.