bag lady

noun

plural bag ladies
sometimes offensive
: a woman with no established residence who roams the streets of a city carrying her possessions in shopping bags

Examples of bag lady in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The play is filled with outlandish characters — most conspicuously, Trudy, the bag lady, who has lost her mind and in the process has made contact with space aliens curious about higher consciousness on Earth. Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2022 The choral ensembles were stirring and effective, especially those for the women portraying Verdi’s witches, depicted in this staging as like a sisterhood of frumpily dressed yet menacing bag ladies. New York Times, 26 Sep. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bag lady.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bag lady was in 1972

Dictionary Entries Near bag lady

Cite this Entry

“Bag lady.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bag%20lady. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Definition revised
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