street smarts

plural noun

: the quality of being streetwise

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Taking a stand against someone with greater organizational power and perhaps more street smarts requires determination and emotional strength. —Lynne Curry | Alaska Workplace, Anchorage Daily News, 21 Mar. 2023

The Oxford dictionary denotes street smarts as the knowledge and experience to deal with the difficulties and dangers of life in the big city. —Jon Michail, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2023

But in this case, the bigger part of the appeal may be watching Buckley work a buyer using bravado and street smarts. —Jasper Craven, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2023

Hence a country in which sarcasm and street smarts are considered national trademarks suddenly becomes superstitious. —Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2022

To prove sophistication at the fitness hearing, the prosecutor, James Lassart, pointed to Guy’s street smarts. —Jesse Barron, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2022

Assuming horror pics often have Black characters as the first to die, the all-Black ensemble of characters in The Blackening must use their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies to stay alive. —Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Nov. 2022

Attack the Block followed Boyega’s Moses, a young gang leader turned local hero who uses his street smarts to fight an alien invasion. —Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2022

And Chee, possessed with more ambition than street smarts, and happily ensconced in white America prior to being called back home, needs help relating to the community. —Daniel D'addario, Variety, 8 June 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1966, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

street smarts

noun plural

: the quality of being streetwise