Meanings
- derogatoryidiomaticpluralplural onlyThe general populace, particularly the working class.
The Liberal campaign was so carefully orchestrated that McLeod was never in a position to be confronted by the great unwashed. Unfortunately, the great unwashed rarely vote for a leader whom they have never met.
1995, Christina Blizzard, Right Turn: How the Tories Took Ontario1 more example
[T]he gentlemen of the inns of court, and the gentlemen of the universities… live in abodes which were erected long before the custom of cleanliness and decency obtained among us. … Gentlemen, there can be but little doubt that your ancestors were the Great Unwashed: and in the Temple especially, it is pretty certain, that only under the greatest difficulties and restrictions the virtue which has been pronounced to be next to godliness could have been practised at all.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLCSynonyms: hoi polloi, unwashed masses, great unhosed, canaille, commonality, commonalty, crowd, commonage
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe general populace, particularly the working class.
Origin
Though attributed by many to Edmund Burke, the first published use of the phrase was by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in a dedicatory epistle for 1830, Paul Clifford.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French vulgum pecus
- vulgum pecusa contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
Polish buractwo, tłuszcza
- buractwoa contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
- tłuszczaa contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
Romanian vulg, prostime
- vulga contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
- prostimea contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
Swedish kreti och pleti
- kreti och pletia contemptuous term for the populace, particularly the working class
Cite this entry
great unwashed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20unwashed
“great unwashed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20unwashed. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “great unwashed,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20unwashed.
Source: great unwashed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.