sleep under the same bridge

verb

To be formally, but not actually, equal under the law, due to circumstances being ignored.

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Meanings

verbsleep under the same bridge (third-person singular simple present sleeps under the same bridge, present participle sleeping under the same bridge, simple past and past participle slept under the same bridge)

present singular third person sleeps under the same bridge · participle present sleeping under the same bridge · participle past slept under the same bridge · past slept under the same bridge

  1. To be formally, but not actually, equal under the law, due to circumstances being ignored.

    The equally enforced prohibition not to sleep under the same bridge does not signify the reign of equality but rather its opposite for those without homes.

    2000, Darrow Schecter, Sovereign states or political communities?, Manchester University Press, page 77

Origin

An allusion to “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under the bridge, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread”, a translation from the French "La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain", Le Lys rouge, The Red Lily, 1894.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sleep under the same bridge. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleep%20under%20the%20same%20bridge

MLA

“sleep under the same bridge.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleep%20under%20the%20same%20bridge. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sleep under the same bridge,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleep%20under%20the%20same%20bridge.

Source: sleep under the same bridge on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.