From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe streetsthe streets[plural] (also the street)HOME the busy public parts of a city where there is a lot of activity, excitement, and crime, or where people without homes liveon the streets young people living on the streets She felt quite safe walking the streets after dark. Children as young as five are left to roam the streets (=walk around the streets) at night. street musicians (=ones who play on the street) She has written about the realities of street life (=living on the streets). → street
Examples from the Corpus
the streets• Hundreds are injured as the streets of Berlin become a battlefield.• Fiats and mopeds clog the streets of Palermo, Ragusa, and the smaller cities.• The Sandinistas were forced into a temporary retreat but returned later with reinforcements to do battle in the streets.• Children were prohibited from smoking in the streets and the sale of tobacco to them became an offence.• In all my years as a producer I've never seen such scenes on the streets of Berlin.• There was a lot of violence, gangs roaming the streets.• For them it was a career or back to the streets or the mines.• Homeless patients receive medication to get well enough to return to the streets where they live until their next psychotic episode. 