common cause

Idioms

A joint interest, as in “The common cause against the enemies of piety” (from John Dryden's poem, Religio laici, or a Layman's Faith, 1682). This term originated as to make common cause (with), meaning “to unite one's interest with another's.” In the mid-1900s the name Common Cause was adopted by a liberal lobbying group.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Foley, who doesn’t drive a state car, is “an extremely detailed stickler” for accountability and transparency, said Gavin Geis, executive director of nonprofit Common Cause Nebraska.

From The Wall Street Journal

To test that idea, the team exposed mice to a protein from house dust mites, a common cause of allergic asthma.

From Science Daily

“The sticking point was always the Strategic Defense Initiative, which Reagan thinks is essential and Gorbachev thinks is a deal-breaker in their common cause of eliminating nuclear weapons,” Wilson says.

From Slate

The historically anachronistic animated epic introduces its neanderthal champion, Spear, and his partner, a female Tyrannosaurus named Fang, as they find common cause in grief.

From Salon

"I'm forging a new relationship with Canada. We've got a new leader, we've got a new prime minister... and we seem to have common cause on trying to get a new pipeline built," she said.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023