MAN IN THE STREET Definition & Meaning

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man in the street

noun

the ordinary person; the average citizen:
the political opinions of the man in the street.

man in the street

noun

the typical or ordinary person, esp as a hypothetical unit in statistics

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of man in the street¹

First recorded in 1825–35

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, woman in the street . An ordinary, average person, as in It will be interesting to see how the man in the street will answer that question . This expression came into use in the early 1800s when the votes of ordinary citizens began to influence public affairs. Today it is used especially in the news media, where reporters seek out the views of bystanders at noteworthy events, and by pollsters who try to predict the outcome of elections.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Disgraced Cheshire MP Mike Amesbury is facing calls to quit the House of Commons after being jailed for 10 weeks for repeatedly punching a man in the street.

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An Islamic extremist murdered a man in the street in protest against the Israel and Gaza conflict, a court has heard.

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The longer video shows that after authorities detained the man in the street, the situation appeared to de-escalate.

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Could the present for Le Mans also be the future for the man in the street?

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“The folks in the theater, the man in the street, and the children in school knew that Washington was first in peace, first in war, and last in the American League,” Povich wrote in 1954.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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