street arab

or street Ar·ab

[ street-ar-uhb ]

nounArchaic: Often Offensive.

a person, especially a child, who lives on the streets; urchin.

Origin of street arab

First recorded in 1860–65

usage note For street arab

See Arab.

Words Nearby street arab

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use street arab in a sentence

The beggar reciting the Bible to fill his pocket is very well; but he does not come up to the preaching street arab.
Friend Mac Donald | Max O'Rell
Once in a while some street arab let drive a stone, then dove under the nearest car, and scurried away into hiding.
Harper's Round Table, August 20, 1895 | Various
This is the newsboy of London, a personality into which the street arab not infrequently develops.
Highways and Byways in London | Mrs. E. T. Cook.
He was a Parisian, a former street arab, and I suspected him of having prepared an apple-pie bed in order to have a laugh at me.
Trooper 3809 | Lionel Decle
And in her turn Florence appeared with her little street-arab smile, and her childish haunches.
En Route | J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans

British Dictionary definitions for street Arab

street Arab

noun

literary, old-fashioned a homeless child, esp one who survives by begging and stealing; urchin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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