street smarts

plural noun

, Informal.

shrewd awareness of how to survive or succeed in any situation, especially as a result of living or working in a difficult environment, as a city ghetto neighborhood.

First recorded in 1970–75

The one thing they all seemed to have in common was an utter lack of street smarts.

I had been a shy, conservative girl with more book smarts than street smarts.

He was just applying his street smarts to his job, and decided that something about Kahtani sounded an internal alarm.

Portrayed as having a good degree of street smarts, cunning Carver seems to have played along in the interest of getting ahead.

The real Harvey Milk was a veritable Lenny Bruce of comic timing and New York City street smarts.

April 23, 2024inveterate

[in-vet-er-it ]

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