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Definition 2024


welfare_queen

welfare queen

English

Noun

welfare queen (plural welfare queens)

  1. (US, pejorative) A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need.
    • 1994, Lisa Jones, Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair, Anchor Books (1995), ISBN 0385471238, page 118-119:
      Martin isn't a typecast welfare queen sucking the nation dry, as Thomas seemed to suggest, but a single woman like his own mother, who worked low-paying jobs without benefits to support her family and turned to relatives for help.
    • 1994, Marian Wright Edelman, Measure of Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, Beacon Press (1994), ISBN 9780807031063, page 113:
      Welfare queens can't hold a candle to corporate kings in raiding the public purse.
    • 2008, Earl Sewell, If I Were Your Boyfriend, Kimani TRU (2008), ISBN 9781426816260, page 125:
      [] You need to go on back to the ghetto and make a bunch of ghetto babies and live off of welfare. I heard that you and your mama were welfare queens.”

See also