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

There could be as many as 16 food trucks along the road, selling everything from American comfort food like burgers to Asian street food fusion, and, of course, hot chicken. —Craig Shoup, Nashville Tennessean, 2 Oct. 2025

The large menu inludes single and family size biryani meals, samosas, paneer, curries, chaat, street foods and Indo Chinese options. —Endia Fontanez, AZCentral.com, 2 Oct. 2025

Eggs are so much more than a breakfast staple, as shown by a new Indian street food restaurant now open in the Charlotte area. —Tanasia Kenney, Charlotte Observer, 30 Sep. 2025

Food halls like the pan-Asian pan-Asian 1-800-Lucky in Wynwood or even the new Central Fare at the Brightline station showcase the city’s eclectic range of street food and small-biz gems, perfect for trying a little of everything. —Skye Sherman, Travel + Leisure, 29 Sep. 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