bindle stiff

Definition of bindle stiffnext
as in beggar
a homeless wanderer who may beg or steal for a living upon graduation from college he wandered around the country as a bindle stiff, naively believing that he was at one with the downtrodden

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bindle stiff
Noun
  • Hollywood turned him into a beggar.
    Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair, 12 Jan. 2026
  • In the old days beggars were drawn and quartered in that square.
    George Packer, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • The hobo bag has been popular with several brands over the past few seasons.
    Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 7 Feb. 2026
  • One mask depicts a frowning hobo with a 5 o'clock shadow that represents the aforementioned vagrant.
    Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 15 Dec. 2025
Noun
  • As older leaders retire, the days of bums on seats five days a week are likely to fade with them.
    Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Here, in the rugged, remote Santa Cruz Mountains, one of California’s coastal ranges, the counterculture had found one of its first bucolic, dharma-bum milieus.
    Scott Eden, Rolling Stone, 1 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • The scene inspired future comedy gags showing drifters and tramps losing their pants to dogs chasing them.
    Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Told in a lingua franca of philosophy and academic jargon, Lucky’s speech has something to do with the collapse of reason and logic, and the futility of human progress, which is ultimately what tramps Estragon (Reeves) and Vladimir (Winter) are up against, too.
    Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 Dec. 2025
Noun
  • What emerged, Jackson told the court Thursday, was the portrait of a transient and calculating offender who operated across multiple states and evaded law enforcement for years.
    Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 21 Feb. 2026
  • The researchers also found that the stage, although transient, is highly controllable.
    Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 20 Feb. 2026
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Bindle stiff.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bindle%20stiff. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.

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