bag lady
Americannoun
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Slang: Offensive. an unsheltered or homeless woman who lives and sleeps on city streets or in public places, often keeping all her belongings with her in shopping bags.
noun
Etymology
Origin of bag lady
First recorded in 1960–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"People called us the bag lady because I used to carry all my bags everywhere."
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2025
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.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
“I thought I would be a bag lady 10 years from now saying, ‘Hey, I invented those,’ ” Ms. Revson told The Post in 1995.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2022
I remember Elaine telling me in a meeting at her Hampshire office that she lived in constant fear that at any moment she might become a bag lady living on the streets.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2015
With a slight push, a slip over some ill-defined edge, I could turn into a bag lady.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
