common as bums en · ADJ
Meanings
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(Australia, US, colloquial, not-comparable, qualifier:simile) Very common or mundane (in various senses).
He made a face. "What for? You don't want a vineyard there. They're as common as bums; everybody's got one."
1958, D'Arcy Niland, Call Me when the Cross Turns Over, Angus & Robertson, →ISBN, White Lion Publishers, →ISBN, page 104: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.
2014 June 7, Alicia Dawson, The Sydney Morning Herald, archived from the original on 18 Nov 2023, Tatts take over:"These kinds of thefts are common as bums at a soup kitchen," Ed said, yawning.
2016, Joe Ide, IQ, page 296:Bruises and bumps in the Kentucky camp were as common as bums at a free barbecue.
1938 October 25, “Wildcats Fall Before Xavier 26-7 at Cincy”, in The Kentucky Kernel, volume 29, number 12, Lexington, Kentucky, page 1: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.
2011 March 15, David Butler, “Almanac Rugby League – The making of a Swannies fan”, in The Footy Almanac, archived from the original on 26 Jun 2022:
Synonyms
pedestrian · habitual · everyday · common as pig tracks · dime a dozen · routine · general · common as muck · regular · common · frequent · two a penny · ten a penny · quotidian · common as bums · routinary · workaday · bog-standard · basic · common as dirt · common as pig tracks · nonrare · common as muck · usual · plain · average · par for the course