Word.ws English Dictionary

sleep under the same bridge

sleep under the same bridge verb: to be formally, but not actually, equal under the law, due to circumstances being ignored.

Verb

sleep 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)

  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

Forms of sleep under the same bridge

third-person singular presentsleeps under the same bridge
present participlesleeping under the same bridge
past participleslept under the same bridge
pastslept under the same bridge

Origin of sleep under the same bridge

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.

Questions about sleep under the same bridge

What does sleep under the same bridge mean?
Sleep under the same bridge means to be formally, but not actually, equal under the law, due to circumstances being ignored.
What part of speech is sleep under the same bridge?
Sleep under the same bridge is a verb.
What is the past tense of sleep under the same bridge?
The past tense of sleep under the same bridge is slept under the same bridge.

Words near sleep under the same bridge in the dictionary

  1. sleep terrors
  2. sleep tight
  3. sleep together
  4. sleep twitch
  5. sleep twitches
  6. sleep under the same bridge
  7. sleep well
  8. sleep with
  9. sleep with one eye open
  10. sleep with one's fathers
  11. sleep with the fishes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleep under the same bridge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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