baggage

[ bag-ij ]
See synonyms for baggage on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. trunks, suitcases, etc., used in traveling; luggage.

  2. the portable equipment of an army.

  1. things that encumber one's freedom, progress, development, or adaptability; impediments: intellectual baggage that keeps one from thinking clearly; neurotic conflicts that arise from struggling with too much emotional baggage.

  2. Archaic.

    • a worthless woman.

    • a prostitute or disreputable woman.

    • Often Disparaging. a pert, playful young woman or girl: a pretty baggage; a saucy baggage.

Origin of baggage

1
1400–50; late Middle English bagage<Middle French, equivalent to Old French bag(ues) bundles, packs (perhaps <Old Norse; see bag) + -age-age

Words Nearby baggage

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use baggage in a sentence

  • Well, if you do either lose baggage or want to buy a trunk already marked, deuced if I ain't the man to call on.

  • Although the army was greatly demoralised during the retreat through Portugal, he never lost a single gun or baggage wagon.

    Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-Pattison
  • Soult's corps arrived without cannon or baggage, a mere armed rabble, and Ney's men jeered at the disorganised battalions.

    Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-Pattison
  • After her baggage is on the carriage, drive immediately to the house, and be certain all is ready there for her comfort.

  • Robert occupied the abbeys of Biland and Rievaulx and divided the spoils of the English camp and the king's baggage.

    King Robert the Bruce | A. F. Murison

British Dictionary definitions for baggage

baggage

/ (ˈbæɡɪdʒ) /


noun
    • suitcases, bags, etc, packed for a journey; luggage

    • mainly US and Canadian (as modifier): baggage car

  1. an army's portable equipment

  1. informal, old-fashioned

    • a pert young woman

    • an immoral woman or prostitute

  2. Irish informal a cantankerous old woman

  3. informal previous knowledge and experience that a person may use or be influenced by in new circumstances: cultural baggage

Origin of baggage

1
C15: from Old French bagage, from bague a bundle, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse baggi bag

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012