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.
With only $200 left, Deen founded a catering company out of her kitchen called the Bag Lady.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 1, 2025
"I do get bags arriving at my door posted to 'Angela Clarke, Bag Lady, Aberdare'," Ms Clarke said.
From BBC • Jan. 27, 2022
There’s even a Bernie-Madoff-done-me-wrong subgenre, with such entries as the former Self editor Alexandra Penney’s The Bag Lady Papers and self-help guru Geneen Roth’s Lost and Found.
From Slate • Apr. 21, 2016
It only takes one riff or run from Erykah Badu’s Bag Lady to fill me with both momentary euphoria and abject sorrow.
From The Guardian • Nov. 24, 2015
Deen’s , meanwhile, says she remains as “genuine” as she was when she launched her first catering business, The Bag Lady.
From BusinessWeek • Jun. 21, 2013
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.
