Meaning of mean streets | Babel Free

Definitions

A district or set of locales in which there is a high incidence of poverty, crime, disrepair, antisocial behavior, or other adverse conditions.

plural, plural-normally

Examples

“Mr Squeers began to thrust his head out of the window every half-minute, and to bawl a variety of directions to the coachman; and after passing, with some difficulty, through several mean streets which the appearance of the houses and the bad state of the road denoted to have been recently built, Mr Squeers suddenly tugged at the check string with all his might, and cried, 'Stop!'”

“While it is not a city of slums, as some people imagine, it may well be said to be one gigantic slum. From the standpoint of simple decency and clean manhood and womanhood, any mean street, of all its mean streets, is a slum.”

“Expectant dog 'Lucky' lived up to her name when a Blackburn woman came to her rescue after being abandoned on the mean streets of Manchester.”

“In the early 1980s,[…] I was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer trying to act fearless covering the mean streets of a city with more mean ones than perhaps any in America.”

“The city deserves a failing grade for waste bins. […] [W]e’ve noticed an increasing number that are missing plastic side panels, exposing the metal framework and furthering our conclusion that they aren't tough enough for Toronto's mean streets.”

““New York City used to be known for our mean streets, but, going forward, we’re going to be known for our clean streets,” Adams said in June.”

CEFR level