Main Street is the metonym for a generic street name (and often the official name) of the primary retail street of a village, town or small city in many parts of the world. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in the central business district, and is most often used in reference to retailing and socializing.
The term is commonly used in the United States, less often in Canada, Australia, Ireland and extremely rarely in the United Kingdom where the common description is High Street. In Jamaica the term is Front Street. In some parts of South West of England the equivalent used is Fore Street.
In some larger cities, there may be several Main Streets, each relating to a specific neighborhood or formerly separate city, rather than the city as a whole. In many larger U.S. cities "Main Street" is a U.S. Highway, as the streets that helped develop the cities around were converted to highways.
Read more about Main Street: American Cultural Usage, International Use and Equivalents
Famous quotes containing the words main and/or street:
“... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“One must always be aware, to notice—even though the cost of noticing is to become responsible.”
—Thylias Moss, African American poet. As quoted in the Wall Street Journal (May 12, 1994)