the masses

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

I see huge tents covering the masses that are attending the celebration.

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The problem goes well beyond news: The BBC’s vast entertainment and cultural output conveys almost exclusively the same progressive orthodoxies to the masses.

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The struggle of the Golden Arches — long synonymous with cheap food for the masses — reflects a larger trend upending the consumer economy and making “affordability” a hot policy topic.

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Richards’ goal, he said, is to “bring gut health to the masses by snackifying fermented food.”

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Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating once said that Laws ability to reach the masses was crucial for any politician and that "if you could convince John Laws, you could convince Australia".

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