swagman
Americannoun
-
a tramp, hobo, or vagabond.
-
anyone who carries a swag while traveling, as a camper or prospector.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of swagman
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:
The Australians, to whom this enthusiasm was second nature, roared into Bardia singing: Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong Under the shade of a coolibah tree.
From Time Magazine Archive
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong, Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee.
From Time Magazine Archive
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong, "You'll never take me alive," said he.
From Time Magazine Archive
Macauley, at 35, was a proud and able swagman, i.e., itinerant sheep-station hand, who hated cities, where you always need "a penny for the slot and a key for the door."
From Time Magazine Archive
Peter M'Laughlan, bush missionary, Joe Wilson and his mate, Jack Barnes, shearers for the present, and a casual swagman named Jack Mitchell, were camped at Cox's Crossing in a bend of Eurunderee Creek.
From Children of the Bush by Lawson, Henry
Very soon, one suspects, the swagmen on Sir Matt Busby Way will have to update their "Giggsy 12 Gerrard 0" T-shirts paying homage to his unprecedented collection of title wins.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 1, 2013
With one exception, the men do not seem hard up; at least, not as that condition is understood by the swagmen of these times.
From While the Billy Boils by Lawson, Henry
Hoppner and I acquired the tea-habit as badly as the rest of the Australian swagmen.
From Tramping on Life An Autobiographical Narrative by Kemp, Harry
We went "humping bluey" as swagmen, as the tramp is called in Australia.
From Tramping on Life An Autobiographical Narrative by Kemp, Harry
Why, I’ve heard shearers, and hawkers, and swagmen spouting him by the yard!
From A Bride from the Bush by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
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.
