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English
Adjective
common as bums (not comparable)
- (Australia, US, simile, colloquial) Very common or mundane (in various senses).
1938 October 25, “Wildcats Fall Before Xavier 26-7 at Cincy”, in The Kentucky Kernel, volume 29, number 12, Lexington, Kentucky, page 1:Bruises and bumps in the Kentucky camp were as common as bums at a free barbecue.
1958, D'Arcy Niland, Call Me when the Cross Turns Over, Angus & Robertson, →ISBN, White Lion Publishers, →ISBN, page 104:He made a face. "What for? You don't want a vineyard there. They're as common as bums; everybody's got one."
2011 March 15, David Butler, “Almanac Rugby League – The making of a Swannies fan”, in The Footy Almanac, archived from the original on 2022-06-26:It was a long afternoon for those on the drink and the violence on the field was more often than not mirrored on the hill. Fistfights were as common as bums and people abandoned their picnic blankets to make room for the combatants. Many patrons lost full buckets of chips and pies in the mad scramble.
2014 June 7, Alicia Dawson, The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 2023-11-18, Tatts take over:Tattoos were once solely used as a code by bikies and molls, the armed forces, crims and dykes to send a "I’m one of you", or "approach at your own risk", message ("In inky seas, tatts jumped the shark", June 1). Going by what I see in the changing room at my gym these days, they are now purely ornamental – and as common as bums.
2016, Joe Ide, IQ, page 296:"These kinds of thefts are common as bums at a soup kitchen," Ed said, yawning.
Usage notes
In American usage the simile generally appears in a full form "as common as bums" followed by a location specifier (e.g. "at a free barbecue / at a soup kitchen / in L.A."). The exclusive use of the short form in Australia may be explained by the fact that in Australian English the sense "hobo, tramp" for bum is relatively rare, whereas the primary meaning "buttocks" requires no further specification, since this type of "bum" is self-evidently very common.
Synonyms