the masses

Idioms  

1. The body of common people, or people of low socioeconomic status, as in TV sitcoms are designed to appeal to the masses. This idiom is nearly always used in a snobbish context that puts down the taste, intelligence, or some other quality of the majority of people. W.S. Gilbert satirized this view in the peers' march in Iolanthe (1882), in which the lower-middle class and the masses are ordered to bow down before the peers. Prime Minister William Gladstone took a different view (Speech, 1886): “All the world over, I will back the masses against the [upper] classes.” [First half of 1800s]

---

Example Sentences

The introduction of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold brought foldable-devices to the masses, opening up like a wallet.

From The Wall Street Journal

But Samsung tempered expectations for the gigantic device, with an executive describing it as a special-edition product for diehard fans rather than for the masses.

From The Wall Street Journal

West didn’t just embody feminist fat acceptance; she made it cool and brought it to the masses.

From Slate

It said it would introduce new rules to tackle fraud and a lack of transparency in funeral pricing to "reduce the burden of funerals on the masses".

From BBC

“I just think they need to be more effective at explaining the science in a way that can be swallowed up by the masses.”

From The Wall Street Journal