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

Actor King impersonates Dascom Dinsmore, an errant remittance man, who has not seen a pretty woman in the two years he has been in Labrador.

From Time Magazine Archive

Captain Cook found some geographical points, but he missed the emotional one that Sadie Thompson and Ginger Ted, the supreme remittance man in all literature, have supplied to millions.

From Time Magazine Archive

One of the ship's company, all of whom signed on as crew when harbor officials declared the Carma unseaworthy, was Lord Edward Eugene Fernando Montagu, self-styled "remittance man," second son of the Duke of Manchester.

From Time Magazine Archive

"We are all fastened to the Arctic by the strongest ties," said a bewhiskered remittance man.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was a remittance man, a tame little parlor pet whose vocation was to fetch and carry for pretty women, and by some odd trick of fate he had been sifted into the Northland.

From The Yukon Trail A Tale of the North by Wolfe, George Ellis