man on the Clapham omnibus

2 definitions

0—

#1·4h ago

(UK, law) Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.

Origin: First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v. Western Morning News (1903), who attributed it to Lord Bowen. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

No comments yet — say something.

0—

#2·4h ago

(UK, by extension) Any ordinary person; everyman.

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

No comments yet — say something.

Have a better definition?

Add your own interpretation of "man on the Clapham omnibus".

Add definition

🗺️About Regional & Other slang

Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.

See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.