straphangerEtymologyFrom strap + hanger.nounA person who travels using public transportation (often standing up and holding on to a strap).“For several days, Mr. Sammler returning on the customary bus late afternoons from the Forty-second Street Library had been watching a pickpocket at work […] Mr. Sammler if he had not been a tall straphanger would not with his one good eye have seen these things happening.”