What does "bag" mean?
A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.
Bag
/ˈbæɡ/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.
- Grammar: bag is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: base, abstract, acquire, activities.
- Useful contrasts: lose, release, remove.
- Usage evidence: On May 18, a young Japanese couple was arrested after their one-year-old baby was found wrapped in a plastic bag and dumped in a gutter.
How to use "bag"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bag" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bag" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bag" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bag" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bag" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "base" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bag", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.
- 2 an activity that you like or at which you are superior wordnet
- 3 A container made of leather, plastic, or other material, usually with a handle or handles, in which you carry personal items, or clothes or other things that you need for travelling. Includes shopping bags, schoolbags, suitcases, briefcases, handbags, backpacks, etc.
- 4 mammary gland of bovids (cows and sheep and goats) wordnet
- 5 One's preference. colloquial
"Acid House is not my bag: I prefer the more traditional styles of music."
Show 25 more definitions
- 6 a flexible container with a single opening wordnet
- 7 An ugly woman. derogatory
- 8 a portable rectangular container for carrying clothes wordnet
- 9 The cloth-covered pillow used for first, second, and third base.
"The grounder hit the bag and bounced over the fielder’s head."
- 10 a container used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women) wordnet
- 11 First, second, or third base.
"He headed back to the bag."
- 12 a place that the runner must touch before scoring wordnet
- 13 A breathalyzer, so named because it formerly had a plastic bag over the end to measure a set amount of breath.
- 14 an ugly or ill-tempered woman wordnet
- 15 A collection of objects, disregarding order, but (unlike a set) in which elements may be repeated.
"A bag of three apples could be represented symbolically as {a,a,a}. Or, letting 'r' denote 'red apple' and 'g' denote 'green apple', then a bag of three red apples and two green apples could be denoted as {r,r,r,g,g}."
- 16 the quantity of game taken in a particular period (usually by one person) wordnet
- 17 A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance.
"the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents"
- 18 the quantity that a bag will hold wordnet
- 19 A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance.; An udder, especially the pendulous one of a dairy cow.
"Meronym: teats"
- 20 A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance.; The human female breast. plural-normally
- 21 A pouch tied behind a man's head to hold the back-hair of a wig; a bag wig. historical
"[H]e had once lost his bag, and a considerable quantity of hair, which had been cut off by some rascal in his passage through Ludgate, during the lord mayor's procession."
- 22 The quantity of game bagged in a hunt.
- 23 A unit of measure of cement equal to 94 pounds. UK
- 24 A dark circle under the eye, caused by lack of sleep, drug addiction etc. in-plural
"With gravel stuck to my cheek, I pulled myself back in the car, looked in the rearview mirror, and saw, looking back at me, a young man with a pale face and a purple bag under each eye. I looked pitiful […]"
- 25 A large number or amount. informal
- 26 In certain phrases: money. countable, slang, uncountable
"What about the time you got shot eight times and then played a show the same week? ¶ Oh yeah that was beautiful, I mean it was fucked up that I was shot, but as far as goin' to get that bag I'm always gonna go get that bag."
- 27 A fellow gay man. US, derogatory, slang
- 28 A small envelope that contains drugs, especially narcotics. slang
- 29 The scrotum. slang, vulgar
- 30 £1000, a grand. Cockney, slang
"Coulda got a bag last year But now I get a bag for a verse"
Verb
- 1 To put into a bag. transitive
- 2 capture or kill, as in hunting wordnet
- 3 To take with oneself, to assume into one's score; To catch or kill, especially when fishing or hunting. informal, transitive
"We bagged three deer yesterday."
- 4 put into a bag wordnet
- 5 To take with oneself, to assume into one's score; To gain possession of something, or to make first claim on something. transitive
"the two opposition groups have bagged almost 300 of the 500 seats contested in the election."
Show 16 more definitions
- 6 take unlawfully wordnet
- 7 To take with oneself, to assume into one's score; To steal. slang, transitive
""I am sure nobody would mind," said Susan. "It isn't as if we wanted to take them out of the house; we shan't take them even out of the wardrobe." "I never thought of that, Su," said Peter. "Of course, now you put it that way, I see. No one could say you had bagged a coat as long as you leave it in the wardrobe where you found it. And I suppose this whole country is in the wardrobe.""
- 8 bulge out; form a bulge outward, or be so full as to appear to bulge wordnet
- 9 To take with oneself, to assume into one's score; To take a woman away with one as a romantic or sexual interest. slang, transitive
"When we hit the club to go and hell-raise / Probably end up baggin' the cocktail waitress"
- 10 hang loosely, like an empty bag wordnet
- 11 To take with oneself, to assume into one's score; To arrest. slang, transitive
"Free bro, free bro, we got bagged for a M"
- 12 To furnish or load with a bag. transitive
"a bee bagged with his honeyed venom"
- 13 To furnish or load with a bag.; To provide with artificial ventilation via a bag valve mask (BVM) resuscitator. transitive
- 14 To furnish or load with a bag.; To fit with a bag to collect urine. transitive
"The patient was bagged for a urine analysis and stat electrolytes were drawn."
- 15 To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag; To (cause to) swell or hang down like a full bag. ambitransitive, obsolete
"The skin bags from containing morbid matter."
- 16 To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag; To hang like an empty bag.
"His trousers bag at the knees."
- 17 To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag; To drop away from the correct course. intransitive
- 18 To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag; To become pregnant. intransitive, obsolete
"VVell, Venus ſhortly bagged, and ere long vvas Cupid bread, […]"
- 19 To forget, ignore, or get rid of.
"I may just bag that. I think poets have an obligation to boost the magazines they appear in."
- 20 To laugh uncontrollably. slang
- 21 To criticise sarcastically. Australia, slang
Example
"On May 18, a young Japanese couple was arrested after their one-year-old baby was found wrapped in a plastic bag and dumped in a gutter."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bag"?
Common synonyms include: base, abstract, acquire, activities, activity, affair.
How do you use "bag" in a sentence?
On May 18, a young Japanese couple was arrested after their one-year-old baby was found wrapped in a plastic bag and dumped in a gutter.
How do you pronounce "bag"?
Pronounced /ˈbæɡ/.
Etymology
From Middle English bagge, from Old Norse baggi (“bag, pack, satchel, bundle”) (whence also Old French bague (“bundle, package, sack”)); related to Old Norse bǫggr (“harm, shame; load, burden”), of uncertain origin.