just folks

Noun

just folks pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only, sometimes) Ordinary, unpretentious people; an ordinary, unpretentious person.
   • "You still think they come all boxed, sorted, and labeled, do you?" he said. "And that they aren't ‘just folks’ at all?"
     "Yes, I still think so. They never seem a bit like ‘folks’ to me. It's their business to sit up there stiff and solemn and stern."1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 21, in The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch
   • He was happy . . . to be going out to a restaurant without having to sign books or talk to students about Whitman and Melville. . . . Idolized Bech loved, at the end of a long day impersonating himself, being just folks.1999, John Updike, Bech at Bay, →ISBN, page 24

   Synonyms:

   just plain folks, regular folks

2. (attributive, idiomatic, plural, plural-only, sometimes hyphenated) Unpretentious, informal, down-to-earth.
   • Even his mussed cravat and cow licked hair had a "just folks" quality.1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 43
   • George Bush's attempt at just-folks normalcy was undermined when he turned a blind eye to his chief of staff flying military jets to private appointments.2001 June 24, Margaret Carlson, “Shear Dismay”, in Time