welfare queen
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.29 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need.
American usage; Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "Miss Taylor, who is 40 years old, has been called Illinois’ “welfare queen” for allegedly defrauding Illinois and other states out of welfare payments while using a number of aliases."
- "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."
- "Welfare queens can't hold a candle to corporate kings in raiding the public purse."
- "[…] 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.”"
Etymology
First appears c. the 1970s, popularized during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign, but not used by Reagan himself.
Usage
- American usage
- Derogatory