Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


baggage

bag′gage

(băg′gā̍j)
,
Noun.
[F.
bagage
, from OF.
bague
bundle. In senses 6 and 7 cf. F.
bagasse
a prostitute. See
Bag
,
Noun.
]
1.
The clothes, tents, utensils, and provisions of an army.
☞ “The term itself is made to apply chiefly to articles of clothing and to small personal effects.”
Farrow.
2.
The trunks, valises, satchels, etc., which a traveler carries with him on a journey; luggage.
The baronet’s
baggage
on the roof of the coach.
Thackeray.
We saw our
baggage
following below.
Johnson.
☞ The English usually call this
luggage
.
3.
Purulent matter.
[Obs.]
Barrough.
4.
Trashy talk.
[Obs.]
Ascham.
5.
A man of bad character.
[Obs.]
Holland.
6.
A woman of loose morals; a prostitute.
A disreputable, daring, laughing, painted French
baggage
.
Thackeray.
7.
A romping, saucy girl.
[Playful]
Goldsmith.

Webster 1828 Edition


Baggage

BAG'GAGE

,
Noun.
[Eng.package.]
1.
The tents, clothing, utensils, and other necessaries of an army.
2.
The clothing and other conveniencies which a traveller carries with him, on a journey.
Having dispatched my baggage by water to Altdorf.
[The English now call this luggage.]

BAG'GAGE

,
Noun.
A low worthless woman; a strumpet.

Definition 2024


baggage

baggage

English

Noun

baggage (usually uncountable, plural baggages)

  1. (usually uncountable) Luggage; traveling equipment
    Please put your baggage in the trunk.
    • 1929, Charles Georges Souli, Eastern Shame Girl:
      As soon as they had determined on their course, Ya-nei slid under the bed, and made himself a place among the baggages.
    • 1991 September 20, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Love Films: A Cassavetes Retrospective”, in Chicago Reader:
      Alone, she clings to her baggages on the street.
    • 2014 August 21, “A brazen heist in Paris [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:
      The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.
  2. (uncountable, informal) Factors, especially psychological ones, which interfere with a person's ability to function effectively.
    He's got a lot of emotional baggage.
    • 1846, Henry Francis Cary, Lives of the English Poets:
      [<span title="Yet he was unreasonable enough to continue his expectations that Mason should do what he had, without any apparent compunction, omitted to do himself; for after speaking of Brown, the unfortunate author of Barbarossa, who was also an ecclesiastic, he adds: "">…] How much shall I honour one, who has a stronger propensity to poetry, and has got a greater name in it, if he performs his promise to me of putting away these idle baggages after his sacred espousal.
  3. (obsolete, countable, pejorative) A woman.
    • 1828, Various, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, No. 288:
      Betty and Molly (they were soft-hearted baggages) felt for their master--pitied their poor master!
    • 1897, Charles Whibley, A Book of Scoundrels:
      But he had a roving eye and a joyous temperament; and though he loved me better than any of the baggages to whom he paid court, he would not visit me so often as he should.
    • 1910, Gertrude Hall, Chantecler:
      But your perverse attempts to wring blushes from little baggages in convenient corners outrage my love of Love!
  4. (military, countable and uncountable) An army's portable equipment; its baggage train.
    • 1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia:
      Friedrich decides to go down the River; he himself to Lowen, perhaps near twenty miles farther down, but where there is a Bridge and Highway leading over; Prince Leopold, with the heavier divisions and baggages, to Michelau, some miles nearer, and there to build his Pontoons and cross.
    • 2007, Norman Davies, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945, New York: Penguin, p 305:
      In Poland, for example, the unknown Bolesław Bierut, who appeared in 1944 in the baggage of the Red Army, and who played a prominent role as a ‘non-party figure’ in the Lublin Committee, turned out to be a Soviet employee formerly working for the Comintern.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations