handbag
/ˈhændˌbæɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.42 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A small bag carried in the hand, used either when travelling or to carry tools for a specific job.
Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece."
- "I put on my new suit and put my watch on and packed the other suit and the accessories and my razor and brushes in my hand bag […]."
- "Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her."
- "An enormous amount of off-book money sloshes around Chinese business and officialdom, and some of it runs into handbags."
- "In London, of all places, where people are always on the lookout for opportunities to commit crimes: an unzipped handbag, a phone sticking out of a back pocket, an unpadlocked bike."
- "‘Apparently Birt happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on Sunday afternoon. Virginia saw him and handbagged him. She really was very cross.’"
Etymology
From hand + bag. The music genre is named from women dancing around a pile of their handbags in nightclubs. The verb is a reference to Margaret Thatcher's handbag.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhændˌbæɡ/
- British English: /ˈhændˌbæɡ/