street smart 

A person who has alot of common sense and knows what's going on in the world. This person knows what every type of person has to deal with daily and understands all groups of people and how to act around them. This person also knows all the current shit going on in the streets and the ghetto and everywhere else and knows how to make his own right decisions, knows how to deal with different situations and has his own independant state of mind. A street smart person isn't stubborn and actually listens to shit and understands shit.

that dude actually understands alot of shit thats going on today, he's street smart

street smart by Da ReAlisT October 5, 2005

street smart 

The general definition of street smart is someone who is intelligent, has good common sense, knows how to handle bad situations, and has the skills necessary to function where they live (usually the ghetto or the streets). However, the term is usually used to contrast and compare with another term known as "book smart".

The stereotype of a street smart person is someone who is intelligent and knows how to handle important situations in the streets but is not as well-educated academically. However, the stereotype of a book smart person is someone who is upper-class and well educated but less knowledgeable when it comes to handling important situations faced in bad neighborhoods and lower-class city areas.

The more extreme and negative stereotypes are that street smart people are unintelligent and incapable of achieving a higher education, while book smart people are naive, easily manipulated, and have bad judgment in bad situations.

Both stereotypes aren't always true and any semblance of them are only due to different lifestyles and experiences.

Josh: Are you sure me and Jason will get along? Jason is street smart and I'm book smart. We will probably be very different from each other.

Mike: Nah, don't worry. Jason may be street smart but he is also book smart. I'm sure you two will have a lot in common.

street smart by street smart & book smart girl July 15, 2010

street smart 

A person who is wise to the ways of both the streets and to the general ways of how to read situations, street smart people tend to be predominantly from larger cities but not exculusively so, they often can use these skills in business and in social settings,

a street smart person tends to understand others have their own interests 1st and yours second, while a non street smart will take things at face value a street smart will ask what does this person have to gin by lieing to me,

street smart by derbytilson August 27, 2015

Street smart 

A trait that helps one cope with the everyday person or situation in the Ghetto and ALSO in personal life and business. A people person. One good with words. Smooth-talker.

My uncle, the business owner, is rarely taken advantage of because he is street smart.

Street smart by bearclaw/// July 23, 2009

street smart 

An adjective that dumb people use to describe themselves, when they don't get good grades in school.

Zach: Even though I'm failing all of my classes, I think its more important to be street smart than book smart.

street smart by TheCatcherInThePye March 28, 2013

street smart 

Strictly defined, "Street Smart" describes a person with knowledge gained by experience rather than education.

In practical application, "Street Smart" is what stupid people claim to be in order to save face when their stupidity comes to light. It is effective in that regard, as it can not be disproved and places the individual in a higher regard than someone who is "Book Smart" by promoting their nebulous "Smarts" as being more practical than the well-educated individual's.

In the context of psychology, the claim of being "Street Smart" when an individual's stupidity is made apparent is vital to preserving their mental well-being. Most people have been engineered to have the fragile type of high self-esteem, which is self-esteem developed in the absence of actual merit that would warrant high self-esteem. As a part of this fragile self-esteem, the person will believe that they are smart regardless of real intelligence, and when that person's iteration of reality is threatened (i.e. their stupidity is made apparent) the psyche protects itself by assuring the individual that what they've been told all their life (that they are smart) is still true by denying this new and conflicting information (their obvious stupidity) and substituting it with an alternative reality, thus avoiding much Cognitive Dissonance (mental pain that results from beliefs not matching reality) and so averting a psychic break. To summarize in a quote, "I reject your reality and replace it with my own."

Lance: "The world is flat." Or whatever.
David: "No, the world is round. That's how we have a horizon. In any case, we've been to space and seen it for ourselves. Many, many times. Dumbass."
Lance: "WHATEVER I'M NOT BOOK SMART I'M STREET SMART"

street smart by unoriginal_name33 March 10, 2017

street smart 

something stupid people made up to make themselves feel better about themselves, aka things smart people already know

If you're "book smart" you probably already know everything "street smart" people know.

street smart by snackdaniels May 31, 2018