Carpetbag

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A traveling bag made from scraps of carpet and widely used in the United States (and elsewhere) in the 19ᵗʰ century.

    "Pen jumped out of the carriage then, his carpet-bag in hand, and briskly determined to face his fortune."

  2. 2
    traveling bag made of carpet; widely used in 19th century wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To come to a place or organisation with which one has no previous connection with the sole or primary aim of personal gain, especially political or financial gain. US

    "The Five Star Movement has long railed against carpetbagging, but for all of Ms. D’Alessandro’s efforts to seem of the place — talking about her childhood in Naples and showing the bar where she had her first date — she clearly isn’t."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having the characteristics of carpetbaggers. US, not-comparable

    "carpetbag travels"

Adjective
  1. 1
    presumptuously seeking success or a position in a new locality wordnet
  2. 2
    following the practices or characteristic of carpetbaggers wordnet

Example

More examples

"Pen jumped out of the carriage then, his carpet-bag in hand, and briskly determined to face his fortune."

Etymology

From carpet + bag.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.