remittance man

American  

noun

1. a person who is supported abroad chiefly by remittances from home.

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remittance man British  

noun

1. a man living abroad on money sent from home, esp in the days of the British Empire

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Etymology

Origin of remittance man

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

We did not ask each other’s business there; and, judging by the dogs and gun, we put him down as a ‘remittance man.’

From Project Gutenberg

In one version the Murphy character is a used-car salesman in the Bronx who falls in love with Shivas’s daughter and winds up a remittance man in Tahiti.

From New York Times

Bethune, who lay upon the shingle in garments much the worse for wear, was a “remittance man,” with a cheerful expression and a stock of unvarying good humor.

From Project Gutenberg

Stripped of details, it amounted to this: Some five years before a fine English mare which had been the property of a deceased remittance man, had been auctioned off.

From Project Gutenberg

The timber wolf I trimmed out because he wasted around like a remittance man.

From Project Gutenberg