English

Alternative forms

• curbstone (US)

Noun

kerbstone ‎(plural kerbstones)

1. A paving stone that forms part of a kerb
   • 1912, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, Act I

     You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.

   • 1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Knopf, Part Two,

     Gabriel often saw him on the streets, playing on the curbstone with other boys his age.