bindle n.
1. (US) a bundle containing clothes and possessions, esp. a bedding-roll carried by a tramp.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘The Road’ in Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Any tramp is a ‘stiff,’ and the blanket in a bundle is a ‘bindle’. | |
| Road 172: A bindle-stiff is a working tramp. He takes his name from the roll of blankets he carries, which is known as a ‘bindle’. | |
| Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/6: A package is a ‘bindle,’ derived from bundle. | |
| Gay-cat 111: He carried under one arm a roll of clothing, the ‘bindle’ tied compactly with a bit of hay-rope. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 61: One of them was unrolling a ‘bindle’ of blankets. | |
| ‘Gila Monster Route’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 160: But the john had a bindle – a worker’s plea, – / So they gave him a floater and set him free. | |
 | S.F. Murders 233: A little ‘bindle’ of ground coffee (a cloth bag like a five-pound salt sack, which could be rolled up as the dry coffee was consumed) was the sort of package usually carried by itinerants [W&F]. | |
| Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 90: It’s well known [...] that a female motorist will never crawl into the backseat with a lad who has his bindle wrapped in a dirty shirt. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 791: bindle – Bedding; necessary shaving utensils, etc. | |
| (con. 1920s) South of Heaven (1994) 123: I put on my hat and picked up my bindle. | |
| Straw Boss (1979) 11: He had been sleeping, curled up around his twine-tied bindle. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 149: A hitch-hiker’s backpack (with a rolled-up bindle strapped to the top). | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Legs 1: He sat on the ground [...] resting his back on a bindle propped against a stump. | |
| Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] Jay was fixing to pack a bindle and camp in the woods. |
2. as sense 1, other than of clothes etc, a bundle, a package.
| Pod, Bender & Co. 292: No matter whether we had a bindle of toadskins to cut up, or was scoffin’ in a garbage- joint, you’ve always been on the T-square with me, Ben. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 138: Last night we ducks out and down Jackson Street to the commission houses and gather up a couple of bindles of wood. |
3. (drugs) a small measure of narcotics, wrapped in a folded square of paper.
| DN V 246: bindle, n. A package containing either morphine or cocaine. ‘Give me a bindle of snow’. | |
| Hop-Heads 17: The table was littered with the layout of a drug victim – from the fire blackened spoon [...] to the ‘bindles’ (packages) of ‘c’. | |
| Helena (MT) Indep. 2 Mar. 8/8: [They] were in possession of 25 bindles of morphine, 26 bindles of cocaine, and five bindles of yenshee. A bindle is a small package prepared to sell for $1. | |
| ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: I picked up the bindles of coke. | |
| Rough Stuff 121: Little Joe showed me how to make up my first bindle or deck, a number of small packets of the drug. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 139: She took out a bindle of horse / And shot it right up her arm. | |
| et al. DAUL 27/2: Bindle. [...] 3. A small packet of powdered drugs. (‘A bindle of H’—heroin; ‘A bindle of M’ —morphine; ‘A bindle of C’—cocaine.). | |
| USA Confidential 144: Opium is down to $5 a bindle. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 59: He’d been out scouring for a bindle of reefers. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 152: A high yeller pimp stepped out, / Said, ‘I ain’t got much to say.’ / Pulled a bindle and took a shot, / Said, ‘Like Stack, I’m on my way.’. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 200: Pretty makeshift bindle, man. | |
| Permanent Midnight 348: An open bindle that must have contained a gram or so of fluffy white powder. | |
| High Concept 113: A collection of ‘bindles’, cocaine wrapped in plastic or glossy magazine paper folded, origami style, into small packets. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 163: Cur-ti jived. Cur-ti crimped bindles. Cur-ti cut dope. |
In compounds
(US gay) the young companion of a homosexual tramp.
| et al. DAUL 27/2: Bindle-boy. A young tramp who carries bindle for an older road-agent, panhandles for him, and often serves pederastically. | |
| (con. 1930s–40s) Queens’ Vernacular 107: Hobo slang (kwn ’30s & ’40s) [...] The adolescent who usually doubled as cook/lover to a homosexual hobo was called a bindleboy (bindle = bedroll). |
(US drugs) a female narcotics addict.
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
1. (US) a tramp.
| Itinerant Policeman 167: Among the ‘Bindle Men’, ‘Mush Fakers’, and ‘Turnpikers’ of the middle West, the East, and Canada, there exists a crude system of marking ‘good’ houses [DA]. |
2. (US drugs) a street-level narcotics dealer.
| Understanding Adolescence 390: Pusher. One who professionally sells drugs (term has subcategories such as ‘nickle man,’ ‘bindle man,’ etc. |
(US) a tramp.
| ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 220: Tough as an ingrowing toenail with his right load. A bindle punk. |
1. (also bindle bo, bindle bum, bundle stiff, bundle stiff willie) a tramp, spec. one carrying a bedroll; formerly a migrant worker [stiff n.1 (5a)/bo n.1 /bum n.3 (2)].
| ‘The Road’ in Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Because of his predilection to carry his bed with him, he is known in trampland as the ‘bindle stiff.’. | |
| Road 172: ‘Bindle-stiffs’ are favorite prey of the road-kids. A bindle-stiff is a working tramp. He takes his name from the roll of blankets he carries, which is known as a ‘bindle.’ Because he does work, a bindle-stiff is expected usually to have some small change about him, and it is after that small change that the road-kids go. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 356: I know your kind – brave as lions when it comes to pullin’ miserable, broken-spirited bindle stiffs. | |
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/1: Bundle stiff — A hobo who carries a bundle of suitcase, nightshirt or toothbrush. | |
| (con. 1908) Adventures of a Woman Hobo 67: We’re westbound bundle stiffs same as yourself. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 61: Come on down, kid. Don’t be leery. We’re only a couple of harmless bindle stiffs. | |
| Main Stem 194: You a bundle stiff from out California way? | |
| Milk and Honey Route 18: In those days the hobo carried his bed for which he was known as the ‘bundle stiff’ or ‘bindle bo’. | |
| Bruiser 137: They were the familiar ‘bindle stiffs’ or men who carried bundles in a wandering world. | |
| ‘Lunching at the Ritzmore’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 16: Drifters and hopheads and tbs’ and beggars and bums and bindle-stiffs. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 38: bundle stiff [...] bundle stiff willie A tramp who carries a bed roll. | |
| et al. DAUL 28/1: Bindle-bum. See Bindle-stiff. | |
| Rumble on the Docks (1955) 39: Imagine two bindle-stiffs [...] rolling Joe Brindo. | |
| (con. 1950-1960) Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 10: Bindle-bum – one who carries his bed roll; a tramp. | |
| Rage in Harlem (1969) 125: Night thieves and bindle stiffs and blind beggars and all flotsam that floated on the edges. | |
| Ringolevio 9: Every bindle stiff on the street [...] eyed this group of black kids. | |
| Homeboy 41: Beggars, bummies and bindlestiffs of every bent. | |
| Royal Family 719: Get a bag on a stick like an oldtime bindlestiff. |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
| Walk on the Wild Side 81: Old-time sterno drinkers and bindlestiff nomads made the flophouse a forenoon murky with their hard-time breath. |
3. (US drugs, also bindle bum) a narcotics addict.
| It’s a Racket! 220: bindle stiff—Smuggler of narcotics. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 16: Bindle bum – same as Bindle stiff. |
4. an unimportant man.
| ‘And Howe’ in Everybody’s Feb. 🌐 That bindle stiff [...] just give me a load of lip and departed hence. | |
| in Damon Runyon (1992) 2: Any bindlestiff can prosecute people [...] but only the greats step out of the cellar in Astoria and make it with a millionairess. |