omnibus

Less common meanings

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To combine separate legislative bills, or similar measures, into a single package.

   Congressional leaders threatened to omnibus the remaining spending bills if the committees missed their deadline.

   The state senate omnibused a dozen minor tax changes into a single end-of-session measure.

   UsageOften passive: the bills were omnibused. Past forms: omnibused or omnibussed.

   Similarcombine, bundle, package, consolidate, merge

   Note

   Lawmaking is where the verb is at home, and it sits easily in the passive. Denis Tilden Lynch's “Boss” Tweed (1927) says that in the tax levy measure “were omnibused all appropriations” for the fiscal year. It turns the adjective of omnibus bills into an action. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Denis Tilden Lynch wrote “Boss” Tweed, first published in 1927. api.pageplace.de
   • The book uses the passive wording “were omnibused all appropriations” about appropriations combined in the tax levy measure for the fiscal year. en.wiktionary.org
   • The legislative verb expresses the action corresponding to the adjective used in omnibus bills. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   ride a busverbdatedintransitive

   To go somewhere by omnibus, traveling or being carried as a passenger on a bus.

   Similarbus

   Note

   The passenger's verb could take a loose it that points at nothing, the way people still walk it or rough it. In A Memoir of Daniel Maclise, R.A. (1871), a carriage is hired on two days for the distant places, "but generally we omnibussed it." Set against the hired carriage, the phrase names the ordinary way of getting about, and it now carries a strong period flavor. The past is spelled omnibused or omnibussed. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • A Memoir of Daniel Maclise, R.A. was published in 1871. en.wikipedia.org
   • The memoir describes hiring a carriage on two days to visit distant places. en.wiktionary.org
   • The memoir contains the exact words “but generally we omnibussed it,” illustrating the passenger verb with nonreferential it and contrasting ordinary omnibus travel with the hired carriage. en.wiktionary.org
   • Both omnibused and omnibussed are past-tense spellings. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   drive a busverbdatedintransitive

   To drive an omnibus, the large road vehicle that carries many passengers.

   I'm two shillings short of usual rainy-day fares, and not a passenger is out, I'm certain—least ways can I see him, if there was. It's nice business, omnibusing is—in summer time!

   1857, A[braham] Oakey Hall, “Trot the Seventh.—A New York Omnibus has a Singular Fare on a Stormy Night, and what Came of It”

   Note

   Here the word names a trade, and it sounds most natural as omnibusing, the work itself. A. Oakey Hall's driver (1857), two shillings short on a rainy day, grumbles: “It's nice business, omnibusing is—in summer time!” The verb is dated, and today one simply drives a bus. Because the same verb also covers riding as a passenger, only context shows whether someone who omnibused was driving or riding. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The quotation comes from a work by A. Oakey Hall. pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu
   • The speaker complains of being two shillings below the usual rainy-day takings. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quoted wording is accurate. en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb also has a passenger-travel sense. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   waiter's helpernounobsoleteUS

   An assistant waiter in a hotel or restaurant, who helps the waiters by clearing tables and carrying dishes.

   Similarbusboy, busser

   Note

   Period writing about hotels can catch a modern reader out, because an omnibus there may be a person rather than the passenger vehicle. The usage was chiefly American slang and is long obsolete. Mary Alden Hopkins, writing on the International Hotel Workers' Strike in Collier's (1912), notes that waiters paid their omnibuses themselves, in some hotels more than they earned in wages. Today the job is a busboy's or a busser's. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • In historical hotel writing, omnibus could mean an assistant waiter; this sense was chiefly American slang and is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
   • Mary Alden Hopkins wrote “International Hotel Workers’ Strike,” published in Collier’s in 1912. history.columbia.edu
   • Hopkins reported that waiters paid their own omnibuses, sometimes more than the waiters themselves received in wages. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   adjective

   Of a train or other transportation service, stopping at every station on the route, like a local, rather than running express.
9. 9
   noun

   A stamp issue, usually commemorative, released at the same time by several countries as a joint issue.