street food

noun

plural street foods

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking

Pizza is quintessentially a street food: a quick lunch or a quick snack often eaten standing up or on the go.

—Don Lesser

Traditionally eaten as street food, empanadas are ideal for snacking on the go but are just as satisfying to sit down to for a simple dinner.

—Melissa Roberts and Maggie Ruggiero

Satays, which are skewered and grilled morsels of beef, fish, chicken, pork, or vegetables, are street food in Southeast Asia, devoured day and night with gusto.

—Karen MacNeil

Examples of street food in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As for food, burgers are out, teriyaki rice bowls, calamari and Moroccan street food wraps are in. —Tim Spiers, New York Times, 20 June 2025

Travelers can take a relaxed walk through Komodo National Park and meditate in a temple in Bali or explore the vibrant city of Ho Chi Minh and tuck into some street food in Penang. —Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 18 June 2025

While there are many variations of this popular street food, its base is grilled spiced meat (usually chicken, lamb or beef) shaved from the rotisserie and tucked into a light sleeve of pita bread, topped with things such as tomatoes, onions and parsley and perhaps tahini sauce and hot sauce, too. —Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 16 June 2025

The grocer is popular in Canada for Asian street food and a variety of hot food cooked on site. —Caroline Petrow-Cohen, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for street food

• accrued
• allude
• collude
• conclude
• construed
• debuted
• delude
• elude
• endued
• ensued
• eschewed
• etude

Kids Definition

street food

noun

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking