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

Commonly, he would have been through with all his tasks for the day, and he looked with something like disgust at this dirty street arab who was thus turning the household “all tipsy-topsy.”

From Divided Skates by Raymond, Evelyn

In the tapu grove he found one fellow stealing breadfruit, cheerful and impudent as a street arab; and it was only on a menace of exposure that he showed himself the least discountenanced.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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

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

Under this head fall such words as india rubber, oriental colors, street arab, pasteurize, macadam, axminster, gatling, paris green, plaster of paris, philippic, socratic, herculean, guillotine, utopia, bohemian, philistine, platonic.

From The Style Book of The Detroit News by News, The Detroit

She gave him half a sovereign, and he wished he had been a street arab to whom she could have said, "And keep the change."

From The Gay Adventure A Romance by Bird, Richard