English

Noun

bindlestiff ‎(plural bindlestiffs)

1. (US) A tramp (hobo) who carries a bedroll or a bundle of possessions.
   • 1950, James Blish, Cities in Flight:

     The hobo was a migrant worker, generally honest. The tramp would make a living stealing but there would be mutual respect between them. The bindlestiff on the otherhand was the lowest of the low for he would steal from the bindles of his fellow wanderers.

   • 1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden:

     And before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.

   • 1967, Harlan Ellison, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes

     She had been born in Tucson, mother full-blooded Cherokee, father a bindlestiff on his way through.

   • 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage 2010, p. 315:

     AP Finance was tucked somewhere between South Central and the vestigial river, hometown of Indians and bindlestiffs and miscellaneous drinkers of Midnight Special [...].