Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bagsman, bagster, swagman) a commercial traveller.

1788		G. Gambado Academy for Grown Horsemen 26: By a man of business, is not meant a Lord of the Treasury or a Commissioner of Accounts, but what is called on the road, a rider, a bagman or bagster.
1793		Sporting Mag. Dec. III 145/2: It is a common trick played upon bagsters [...] when they are not generous enough to the servants in the inn.
1808		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peep at the Academy’ Works V (1812) 360: The Bag-men, as they travel by Survey it with a raptured eye.
1815		T.L. Peacock Headlong Hall (1816) 3: In later days, when the commercial bagsmen began to scour the country.
1823		[C.M. Westmacott] Mammon in London 1 94: I was seldom out-talked in company, except by a professional ‘Bagman’.
1837		R. Barham ‘The Bagman’s Dog’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1840) 319: There were a score / Of Bagmen and more, / Who had travell’d full oft for the firm before.
1840		Thackeray Paris Sketch Book I 53: ‘Pogson is a commercial traveller.’ [...] ‘A bagman, sir! and what right has a bagman to gamble!’.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 133: It is a common trick played upon bagsters [...] when they are not generous to the servants at the inn.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Oct. 3/4: [headline] The bagman Bagged [...] Albert Cooper, Esq., formerly a commercial traveller [etc.].
1857		J.E. Ritchie Night Side of London 221: Gents and bagsmen on their way home from the city.
1859		Empire (Sydney) 27 July 5/5: ‘A Botany Bay Bagman’ / Says they, with lots of cash / We saw on Epsom Course / A coming of it flash.
1865		R.S. Surtees Facey Romford’s Hounds 31: At first he thought Facey was a bagman — we beg pardon, representative of a commercial establishment.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 11: She goes on bewitching and befoozling these English sports – dukes or bagmen.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 306: He is very apt to become a drummer, an agent of other houses of commerce, represented in England by the ‘touting bagsman,’ or the more ambitious ‘commercial gent.’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 178: ‘[D]ashed if I would not rather drink gin with the boots all day long, than dine with a bag-man’.
1882		‘Paris Inside Out’ in Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 6/2: ‘I do not choose to play with [...] bagmen or shoddy commercial men’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 20/1: Having seen to his horses, and fixed up his kit, the bagman requested the landlord to show him where the bath-room was.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Coming Across’ in Roderick (1972) 184: The bagman told the steward that he could not compliment him on the quality of his liquor.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 5: Bagman or Swagman, a commercial traveller.
1896		E. Pugh Man of Straw 334: Soon there entered a man of a different calibre – a lively, voluble bagman, travelling with liqueurs.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 July 11/4: A bagman distilled poison into her ear, and the poison worked so that she eloped with him to a convenient watering-place much used for that purpose.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 105: From Brack it smacked of the travelling bagman.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 321: And his old fellow before him perpetrating frauds, old Methusalem Bloom, the robbing bagman.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 14: The bagman alone talked, guzzling rapidly in order to gabble while guzzling.
1946		Worker (Brisbane) 15 Apr. 15/3: [headline] Flying Bagman. Britain’s first flying commercial traveller is a washing machine salesman.
1951		S. Hanna Bell December Bride 53: Come in, son, and don’t stand there like a bagman.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 68: The Isle of Man has been invaded by a legion of Pakistani bag-men.
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 490: Big guys with that hinky look indigenous to bagmen worldwide.

2. a second-hand clothes street dealer.

1823		H. Neuman New Dict. of Spanish and Eng. Langs I n.p.: Andrajéro, sm. Bagman, who deals in old clothes.
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 72: These places are resorted to by dealers only – those who collect old wearing apparel – the ‘bagmen’ who are of the lingering race of London street criers.

3. (Aus. und.) a sneak-thief.

1865

Mercury (Hobart) 15 Aug. 3/4: As a ‘sneak-thief’ or ‘bagman,’ I should convict him by his face; the same indictment would make me acquit him instantly of assassination.

4. (US und.) a thief or bank robber’s assistant, who carries the tools.

1882

A. Trumble Crooked Life in Nat. Police Gaz. 13 May 3/2: The second man is the ‘bagman’ too, it being his duty to carry the sack of tools for the chief.

5. (Aus./US, also bag) one who collects or administers the collection of money obtained by various criminal activities [bag n.¹ (2c)].

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 11/1: It is getting an evil repute as a hanger-on at the gates of the affluent and weak-minded persons whose property it grabs [...]. The [Salvation] Army, in short, has grown to be a Great Ecclesiastical Bagman of the most sordid and baggy order, and a diseased and snuffling autocracy.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Bagman, a bill collector.
1959		(con. 1900-29) L. Katcher Big Bankroll 75: The man at the top was always a politician. And working directly with him there was always a high police officer. All graft was strained through him. He was the ‘bagman’ .
1971		J.D. Horan Blue Messiah 317: You can select your own bagman [...] but I want to make a tour with him. I want to know everybody we’re paying.
1973		J.B. Rubinstein City Police 374: The ‘fixer’ and the ‘bagman’ became established fixtures in the police stations and courthouses.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 91: The bag man gotta damn near carry two or three bodyguards with him.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 120: Deputy bag for everybody—sergeants, lieutenants, captains, borough, division—but always a short count.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 76: I was the bag man. They allowed me to carry the money because of my temperament.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 10: The painters’ and dockers’ union used them for bagmen.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 233: ‘If I say I want you to be bagman, you’ill fucking do it’.
1997		N.Y. Times 2 Nov. sect. 6 26: A bagman, in underworld parlance, is ‘one who carries the boodle, or money, from the beneficiary of a corrupt deal to the grafter.’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 Nov. 6: His friends are his fellow hoods – gunmen, bagmen, bank-rollers.
2002		Mad mag. Sept. 27: Alcoholics, sexaholics, drug abusers and Mafia bagmen.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] The minister’s famous Gladstone bag, something of a joke because of his long tenure as party bagman, was on the floor.
2016		Vanity Fair 16 Mar. 🌐 Bill Lincoln was nobody’s idea of the ideal bagman. He suffered from incontinence, sleep apnea, and a recent double hip replacement.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 40: Sometimes she wished for a bagman with a few more functioning synapses.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 191: ‘He’s a CIB bagman’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 168: ‘[T]he old man is basically looking for a new bag man to replace Hennessy’.

6. (Aus.) a bookmaker [bag n.¹ (2)].

1902		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 June 4/6: He is an unregistered bookmaker [...] the aforesaid Burswood bagman.
1923		Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Aug. 4s/7: A well-known ex-member of the A.I.F. [...] has booked a couple of small bets with a bagman.
1935		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 30 Jan. 6/8: He buttonholed the ‘bookie’ just as the race was about to start, and the ever-obliging bagman relieved him of another note.
1940		Western Mail (Perth) 3 Oct. 8/1: The bagman appriasing Joe as a despised ‘two-bob’ punter, consulted his race-book.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 98: If I meet any bagmen on the way, I’ll tell ’em where to come.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aus. Gamble 140: At the end of the day Mr. Wilson, who had kept betting and doubling up, had accumulated liabilities of £2000 with the bagman.
1981		G. Sweeney Plunge 173: They will want specimen original signatures of the bagmen.
1995		‘Crackers Keenan’ Australia’s Funniest Racing Yarns (2003) 113: One thing about the bagmen, they’ll always tell you when they’ve lost.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 14: His father Bill who [...] ‘carried the bag’, or who ‘swung the bag’, or who ‘slung the bag’ and this bag was known as the ‘bookie’s bag’ [...] was referred to as the ‘bagman’.

7. (Aus.) a tramp who travels on horseback; thus bagman’s leg, the loss of a leg through falling under rolling stock; bagman’s union, the brotherhood of travellers.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Dec. 30/4: A muster was called, and it was found that there were 26 genuine bagmen and four strangers who were waiting for work in the vicinity.
1925		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 7 Apr. 8/6: A bagman [...] had his eye on that particular van with a view to ‘jumping the rattler’.
1935		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 25 June 12/3: A bagman with a cigarette swag (50 per cent hessian).
c.1936		‘The Dying Bagman’ in Seal (1999) 96: A strapping young bagman lay dying / His nosebag supporting his head.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 267: Knocking around the bush with a half-crazy bagman.
1952		G. Meek ‘Station Days in Maoriland’ in Station Days in Maoriland 10: We rarely heard a bagman’s tale – the saddle made him sore, / But nowadays, by farmer’s dogs, he’s hunted from the door.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 48: Sundowners never pay fares. It’s against the rules of the Bagmen’s Union.
1971		K. Willey Boss Drover 48: They drifted on, like all bagmen did, and I never heard of either of them again.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 193: I’ll lounge about in the heat of the day / Chat with bagmen that come my way.

8. (orig. US) a messenger, a go-between, esp. one who conveys a bribe from the one who offers it to the one who accepts.

1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 297: They were bag men for themselves and higher-ups.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 63: I’m not the captain’s bagman.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 162: When you were running whores [...] I was your bagman in Wilshire Vice. I did the payoffs.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 33: ‘Bagman’ is a colloquialism I find offensive, lad. ‘Reciprocity of friendship’ is a more suitable phrase [...] but money is at the root of Mr. Loew’s request.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 20: Ruby: Bagman/pimp/Littell’s old snitch/ strip-club entrepre—.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 107: I was the bagman. I brought cash to a cop. He was undercover.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 174: Backhanders [...] lawyers working as bag-men, corrupt bankers.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Usually one cop from every precinct was the bagman—he’d collect the payoff and distribute it out to his fellow officers.

9. a major narcotics dealer, i.e. one who has ‘the bag’ [bag n.¹ (7b)].

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 266: Thoroughbred! Champ! Mackman! Bagman! No man!
1965		W. King ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 308: When a cat gives a bagman dough, he loses everything if the bagman gets copped.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 25: Addicts in their twos and threes [...] scratching and sniffing, searching for the bag man.
1993		C. Hiaasen Strip Tease 137: Garcia said his official title was Executive Assistant [...] ‘Bagman too, according to the rumors.’.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 2: Bag man — [...] a person who supplies narcotics or other drugs, a pusher.

10. (Aus. Und.) in a shoplifting team, the person who actually takes the targeted object.

1975

Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 45: Another time when we all worked London, he kinged a floorwalker just to let the bagman off the hook.

11. (orig. US) in fig. use of sense 5, an employee, a menial, esp. one who takes the blame for the decisions and activities of their employer.

1993		C. Hiaasen Strip Tease 6: ‘No fucking way,’ said the bagman.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 23: His true function was that of Howard’s bag man [...] and general gofer.

12. (US und.) an armed robber.

2014

S.A. Cosby ‘Grandpa’s Place’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] If the driver opens the gun port on the door, a quick and bold bagman could push his own gun into the tiny hole and pop the driver.