street child
Waif without shelter
A street child is a young person who lives or works primarily on the streets, often homeless or with minimal family supervision.
The term encompasses children who sleep in public spaces, beg, scavenge, or perform informal labor to survive.
Street children face particular vulnerabilities—exploitation, substance abuse, violence—and the term often appears in humanitarian and policy contexts: The organization provides shelter for street children in São Paulo.
- waifAbandoned, neglected child
- gaminHomeless street child
- guttersnipeNeglected street youth
- tatteredRipped and worn out
- povertySevere lack of resources
hand to mouth · homelessness · no fixed address · cardboard box · orphan · ragamuffin · Oliver Twist · Les Misérables · resourcefulness · Fagin · abandoned · scavenging · urchin · begging · exploitation · Dickensian · resilience · squatting
- abandoned childrenorphan, foundling, waif, abandonment, desertion
- outcastsoutcast, pariah, pariahs, outcasts, outlaws
- family lossorphan, motherless, fatherless, parentless, abandonment
- victimsvictim, victims, casualty, survivors, fatality
- unfortunatesvictims, unfortunate, wretch, poor soul, lost soul
- displaced childrenevacuee, unaccompanied minor
child, street, streets, stratum, streetwise, streetlight, streetlamp, side street, back street