man on the Clapham omnibus
Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of…Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.
Meaning
2 senses(UK)Any hypothetical reasonable person used by the Courts in considering questions of reasonableness; an everyman.
Near-synonyms: man on the Bondi tram, man on the Shau Kei Wan tram, reasonable person
(UK, broadly)Any ordinary person; everyman.
Origin
First put to legal use in a reported judgement by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in the EngliFirst 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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.