street food

noun

plural street foods

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking

Pizza is quintessentially a street food: a quick lunch or a quick snack often eaten standing up or on the go.

—Don Lesser

Traditionally eaten as street food, empanadas are ideal for snacking on the go but are just as satisfying to sit down to for a simple dinner.

—Melissa Roberts and Maggie Ruggiero

Satays, which are skewered and grilled morsels of beef, fish, chicken, pork, or vegetables, are street food in Southeast Asia, devoured day and night with gusto.

—Karen MacNeil

Examples of street food in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Dishes such as sushi and ramen are now international staples, and Japanese cooking techniques, aesthetics and culinary discipline have shaped global standards from fine dining to street food. —Chris Reed, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 July 2025

Milford hosts bed races down its main drag on Milford Day, Frenchtown welcomes Santa by canoe (bagpiper and Vikings included), and Lambertville’s Shad Fest celebrates its namesake fish with music and street food. —Hannah Howard, Travel + Leisure, 5 July 2025

Merchants paused selling piñatas, street food and aquas frescas to take photos of the runners and cheer them on. —Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2025

After a series of positions at high-profile restaurants, Newton helped launch Asian Box, bringing to Palo Alto authentic, healthy Asian street food in a fine-casual environment. —Mackensy Lunsford, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for street food

• accrued
• allude
• collude
• conclude
• construed
• debuted
• delude
• elude
• endued
• ensued
• eschewed
• etude

Kids Definition

street food

noun

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking