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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
Cite this Entry
“Bag lady.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bag%20lady. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share