Street vs Thoroughfare - What's the difference?

street | thoroughfare |

As a proper noun street

is .

As a noun thoroughfare is

a passage; a way through.

street

English

(wikipedia street)

Alternative forms

* streete

Alternative forms

* (l), (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)

A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.

Walk down the street .

A road as above but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.

I live on the street down from Joyce Avenue.

The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.

The people who spend a great deal of time on the street in urban areas, especially, the young, the poor, the unemployed, and those engaged in illegal activities.

(slang) Street talk or slang.

* 2008 , Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady, Hamlet 2 , Focus Features

Toaster is street for guns.

(figuratively) A great distance.

He's streets ahead of his sister in all the subjects in school.

* 2011 , Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15210221.stm]

England were once again static in their few attacks, only Tuilagi's bullocking runs offering any threat, Flood reduced to aiming a long-range drop-goal pit which missed by a street .

(poker slang) Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river.

Illicit, contraband, especially of a drug

I got some pot cheap on the street .

Usage notes

In the generical sense of "a road", the term is often used interchangeably with road, avenue, and other similar terms. In the English language, in its narrow usage street specifically means a paved route within a settlement (generally city or town), reflecting the etymology, while a road is a route between two settlements. Further, in many American cities laid out on a grid (notably Manhattan, New York City) streets are contrasted with avenues and run perpendicular to each other, with avenues frequently wider and longer than streets. In the sense of "a road", the prepositions in and on have distinct meanings when used with street, with "on the street" having idiomatic meaning in some dialects. In general for thoroughfares, "in" means "within the bounds of", while "on" means "on the surface of, especially traveling or lying", used relatively interchangeably ("don’t step in the road without looking", "I met her when walking on the road"). By contrast, "living on the street" means to be living an insecure life, often homeless or a criminal. Further, to "hear something on the street" means to learn through rumor, also phrased as "word on the street is...".

Hyponyms

* See also

Derived terms

* streetcar * streetcorner * streeted * streetfighter * streetlamp * streetlife * streetlight * streetscape * streetseller * streetwalker * streetward * streetwear * streetwise * streety * back street * civvy street * easy street * from the streets * high street * man on the street * one-way street * side street * street address * street art * street corner, * street cred, street credibility * street drug * street elbow * street food * street furniture * street hockey * street map * street market * street name * street racing * street smarts * street sweeper * street team * street urchin * take to the streets * two-way street * word on the street * Bay Street * Downing Street * Fleet Street * Harley Street * Lombard Street * Main Street * Queer Street * Threadneedle Street * Wall Street

Adjective

(en adjective)

(slang) Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends.

* 2003 , Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill, James P. Baen, Mad Maudlin

Eric had to admit that she looked street —upscale street, but still street. Kayla's look tended to change with the seasons; at the moment it was less Goth than paramilitary, with laced jump boots.

Statistics

Anagrams

* * * 1000 English basic words

thoroughfare

English

Alternative forms

* thorofare * (l) (obsolete) * (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)

A passage; a way through.

* 1961 , (Frederic Morton), The Rothschilds , p. 173:

“I ask you,” cried Lloyd George in 1909. “Are we to have all the ways of reform, financial and social, blocked simply by a notice board: ‘No thoroughfare . By order of Nathanial Rothschild’?”

* 1974 , , Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy :

In the scullery Smiley had once more checked his thoroughfare , shoved some deck-chairs aside, and pinned a string to the mangle to guide him because he saw badly in the dark.

A road open at both ends or connecting one area with another; a highway or main street.

* 1841 , (Charles Dickens), Barnaby Rudge :

a dozen houses were quickly blazing, including those of Sir John Fielding and two other justices, and four in Holborn – one of the greatest thoroughfares in London – which were all burning at the same time, and burned until they went out of themselves, for the people cut the engine hose, and would not suffer the firemen to play upon the flames.

*, chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.}}

* 2011 , Stephen Phelan, The Guardian , 1 Jul 2011:

Local art is now a viable industry, and hundreds of islanders make a living in it. The thoroughfare of Oneroa village is lined with shops and galleries full of their work.

(obsolete) The act of going through; passage; travel, transit.

* 1667 , (John Milton), Paradise Lost , Book X:

and made one realm, / Hell and this world, one realm, one continent / Of easy thorough-fare .

An unobstructed waterway allowing passage for ships.