to take to the streets
49
4.1
- phrasal verb
- Literature
:
salir a la calle
- Citizens have taken to the streets.
- take to the streets to protest
- protesters take to the streets
- people take to the streets
And then people took to the streets and brought the statue of the dictator down.
- And then people took to the streets and brought the statue of the dictator down.
- There's hundreds of people who took to the streets.
- There was a call from Hamas and other radicals calling on all Muslims to take to the streets and to protest.
- But the fact is rural wage rates in India are not going to change until women take to the streets.
- After weeks of people taking to the streets, when we started seeing the tanks rolling out, yeah, we we were holding our breath for when the first person was going to be killed.
- Or if the courts make a ruling that you don't like, you need to take to the streets and burn down buildings and terrorize people.
- Dozens of you took to the streets raving like lunatics, demanding more of your favorite show.
Examples
-
In March 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to display its discontent with mass arrests of fellow members.
Academic text (2008) -
The girls see this and decide that they, too, should take to the streets.
Academic text (1995) -
We took to the streets and we made a difference.
-
By the end of 1957, the opposition had taken to the streets.
Academic text (1998) -
One million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to show their support for the Chinese students.
Academic text (1990) -
Thousands of Shanghai workers take to the streets in protest.
-
Meantime, the ongoing global protests against Israel see thousands taking to the streets around the world.
Blog text (4) -
Rush hour in downtown Seattle has ground to a halt today as striking bus drivers take to the streets to make their voices heard.
-
On March 26, roughly 500,000 protesters took to the streets of London against austerity measures.
Blog text (4) -
Hundreds of thousands take to the streets in protest against climate change.
Synonyms
283
3.2
To show strong disagreement in public, often by joining a march or strike
74
3.2
Join a public protest to show strong opposition
16
6.1
Go out into public to take part in activities like protesting or selling things
3
6.3
To publicly show support, often when doing so is risky
1
5.0
To stand or march outside a building to show you are against something
Antonyms
How Many
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'take' (move/bring) with 'the streets' (public roads), so a B1 learner who knows the parts can infer a basic meaning of 'go out into the streets.' However, the conventionalized sense implying mass public demonstration or protest is a pragmatic extension that is not fully predictable from the constituents without exposure, even though many languages have equivalent constructions which can help inference.
Etymology
Take to the streets comes from the simple image of people leaving their homes and literally take the streets, walking the roads together to show anger or demand change. That's why it means 'to go outside in large numbers to demonstrate or protest publicly'.