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• street arab
  street arab

  noun

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

  noun

  a homeless child, esp one who survives by begging and stealing; urchin

street arab

American  

[street ar-uhb] / ˈstrit ˌær əb /

Or street Arab

noun

Archaic: Often Offensive.

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

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street Arab British  

noun

1. literary a homeless child, esp one who survives by begging and stealing; urchin

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Sensitive Note

See Arab.

Etymology

Origin of street arab

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

street arab street Arab

His figure interested her—the figure of a boy, almost a street arab.

From Women in Love by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

I remember the sally of an indignant Parisian street arab, who called after me: "Hey, boy, why so high and mighty?"

From The Bride of Dreams by Mellie von Auw

He learned his letters with all the sharp precocity which marks the Parisian street arab, and derived great amusement from the woodcuts illustrating the alphabet.

From The Fat and the Thin by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

The beggar reciting the Bible to fill his pocket is very well; but he does not come up to the preaching street arab.

From Friend Mac Donald by Max O'Rell

And the shrewd young street arab arose to his feet, touched his cap with his forefinger, and said: "H'all right, sir; I 'opes I'll suit."

From The Shagganappi by E. Pauline Johnson

In his native town," Author U Nu wrote of himself in the third person, "the nickname of Tate Sanetha, Saturday-born street Arab, was well known to everybody .

From Time Magazine Archive

Nellie Farren's great song was one about a street Arab with the words: "Let me hold your, nag, sir, carry your little bag, sir, anything you please to give—thank'ee, sir!"

From Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis by Charles Belmont Davis

There was something too roguish and wanton in his face, a look too like that of a schoolboy or a street Arab, to have survived much cudgeling.

From English: Composition and Literature by W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

We had fallen in somewhere with a poor little waif of a boy, one easily to be recognized by the practiced eye of to-day as a good specimen of the street Arab.

From Authors and Friends by Annie Fields

Butler, having transferred his faith to the Bank of England, diverted himself like a street Arab with a slingshot by peppering the church windows.

From Modern Essays by Harry Morgan Ayres