bagman
Americannoun
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dishonest official; a person who collects, carries, or distributes illegal payoff money.
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British. a traveling salesman; drummer.
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Australian. a tramp; swagman.
noun
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informal a travelling salesman
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slang a person who collects or distributes money for racketeers
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informal a person who solicits money or subscriptions for a political party
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history a tramp or swagman, esp one on horseback
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Also called: bagswinger. slang someone who takes money for a bookmaker
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bagman
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.
See Examples For:
His experience demonstrates that far from ridding sports of backroom deals and bagman boosters, the deluge of legal NIL money incentivizes and gives cover to the illicit market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Their first mission, which is to track a bagman with a suitcase in the Madrid airport is a nifty sequence, which gets the film off to a good start.
From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2023
Braun singled out Chiang, an admitted bagman, as especially untrustworthy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
The bagman, who was at Bubba Watson's side for his two Masters wins, knew he was onto a good thing when Scheffler took him on.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2022
Seein all eyes at this moment directed to that part o' his person where a hat should have been, the wee bagman instinctively clapped his hand on his head.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 13 by Various
Huizar’s lawyers called Esparza and Kim, the alleged bagmen in the transaction, “admitted liars” who are “attempting to obtain leniency for their own crimes by cooperating with the government.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
At a caddie event for this week's AT&T Byron Nelson, Greller's fellow bagmen surprised him with a $25,000 check towards the John and Jane Greller Scholarship fund, which honors his parents.
From Golf Digest ● May 8, 2019
But these are merely the movers of the money, the bagmen, the middle men.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 22, 2017
Two-time champion Ben Crenshaw's long-time Masters caddie Carl Jackson is one of the remaining old school Augusta bagmen, who began working at the course aged 14 in 1961.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2014
They seemed to be travelling bagmen of the lowest class.
From Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada by Murray, Henry A.
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.
