Harley Street
1
4.7
- proper noun
- /ˈhɑːrli striːt/
:
Harley Street
- Even before the recent trouble with his lower back that Dr. Walters in Harley Street still insisted was probably nothing more than sciatica, the great man had come to dislike sleeping away from home.
- Dr. Walters in Harley Street
Examples
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After feeling unwell for weeks, I finally made an appointment with a specialist in Harley Street.
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"Harley Street, you know." "Not if you see him on the National Health," said Beth patiently, aware that Lady Palmer had not once shown her face in the hospital.
Fiction book (1995) -
The posh Harley Street gynecologist we were lucky enough to get on the National Health?
Fiction book (1995) -
Courtesy of none other than the ultimate toffee-nosed Dr. Jekyll, Harley Street specialist and a man noted for his good works.
Fiction book (1995) -
Letters of any kind were a distraction when he was working, but he'd given orders that anything from Harley Street was to be carried straight to him.
Fiction book (1995) -
It was from that posh quack in Harley Street that His Grouch was seeing.
Fiction book (1995) -
After fifteen years at the top of his profession in New England, he had returned to set up a lucrative private practice in Harley Street, plus, with an eye to a future gong, a spot of National Health work thrown in on the side, a salve to his famously liberal conscience.
Fiction book (1995) -
At first, I thought that Dr. Jekyll was either cracked or just plain having me on, but the following Friday—the date he had set for our next encounter—curiosity took my feet down the back lane on the far side of Harley Street.
Fiction book (1995) -
Many famous doctors have their clinics in Harley Street, making it a well-known location for medical care.
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Patients from around the world travel to Harley Street to seek treatment from leading medical experts.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally a proper name + street, so a learner who knows 'Harley' (a name) and 'street' can infer it denotes a street called Harley. However, the conventionalized, encyclopedic meaning — that this specific street is renowned for private medical specialists — cannot be derived from the constituent words alone, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
The place Harley Street is a real street in London where, long ago, many private doctors opened offices to see patients. Because so many top specialists worked there, Harley Street came to mean 'private medical care' or top-quality private doctors.