Green’s Dictionary of Slang

baggage n.

1. a worthless man; also adj.

[UK]R. Carew (trans.) Huarte’s Examination of Men’s Wits 209: They might soundly sleepe on his eyes, although by nature he were a baggage.
[UK]J. Mabbe (trans.) Life of Guzman Pt II Bk III 243: Less harme it were a great deale, that a few, and those baggage-people, should not be rich.
[Ire]Head Nugae Venales 24: As two Doctors were walking, an unhappy Baggage emptied a Chamber-pot by chance on their heads.
[UK]C. Stead Seven Poor Men of Sydney 116: God bless me, he’s a useless baggage.
[UK]Beano Comic Library No. 190 59: Silly old baggage!

2. rubbish, nonsense; also adj.

[UK]J. Bale Comedye Concernyng Three Lawes (1550) Jii: send.: I wolde thy Gospell, and thou, were both nowe in hell. evang.: Why and shall this baggage, put by the worde of God. pseud.: Thou wylt not be answered, tyl thou fele a sharper rod.
[UK]R. Ascham Toxophilus (1761) I 109: A boke [...] wherein he weaveth up many broken ended matters, and settes oute much riff-raffe, pelfery, trumpery, baggage, and beggerie ware.
[Scot]J. Knox Hist. of Reformation in Laing Works (1846) I 191: Pilgremage, pardonis, and otheris sic baggage .
[UK]G. Gascoigne Steele Glas Hiiii: When brewers put, no bagage in their beere [...] Where vintners mix, no water with their wine.
[UK]P. Stubbes Anatomie of Abuses 59: Most of them feed upon [...] Hearbes, Weedes, and suche other baggage.
[UK]G. Harvey Pierce’s Supererogation 63: I [...] will definitiuely pronounce him, the very Baggage of new writers.
[UK]H. Crosse Vertues Common-wealth n.p.: The very scum, rascallitie, and baggage of the people, theeues, cut-purses, shifters, cousoners.
J. Dyke Worthy Communicant 203: Thistles, nettles and such like baggage trash [F&H].
[UK]J. Hacket Memorial of John Williams II 128: Books he filcht what he would; For four Cellars of Wine, Syder, Ale, beer, with Wood, Hay, Corn, and the like [...] he gave not an account of Six-pence, but spent it upon Baggage, and loose Franions.
[UK]Smollett Reprisal I viii: I’m a soldier, and never burden my brain with unnecessary baggage.

3. a woman, esp. one considered immoral or sexually autonomous [the image of woman as a man’s burden or encumbrance; the initial use is often synon. with a camp-follower (a woman who follows the military) but by 17C is more commonly found as a comb., e.g. a saucy baggage, a sly baggage, and as such is relatively affectionate; however, there may also be links to Fr. bagasse, a prostitute, a wanton].

[UK]‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon III i: Away you Baggage, hold your peace you Wretch.
[UK]Lyly Mother Bombie V iii: The baggage begins to blush.
[UK]Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 III iii: Thou wert honest at flue, and now th’art a Puncke at fifteene: thou wert yesterday a simple whore, and now th’art a cunning Conny-catching Baggage to day.
[UK]Middleton Chaste Maid in Cheapside II ii: A politic baggage, she makes us swear to keep it.
[UK]T. Cranley (prisoner) Amanda or the Reformed Whore 42: A Bridewell baggage, that deserves the lash.
[UK]T. Heywood Love’s Mistress I i: A young green-sickness baggage.
[UK]E. Gayton Pleasant Notes I viii 61: No doubt the baggages in the coach were his sisters.
[UK]C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 87: This Baggage that still took a pride to / Slander and backbite poor Queen Dido.
[UK]Wycherley Love in a Wood II i: Yes, she’s one of your brisk silly Baggages.
[UK]Behn Rover III iii: A Rape! Come, come, you lye, you Baggage, you lye.
[UK]Scourge for Poor Robin 7: He meets with some little Town-baggage who picks his Pocket, and in requital bestows upon him a swinging Clap.
[UK]Behn Lucky Chance III i: The baggage was damnably in love with a young fellow they call Bellmour.
[UK]Congreve Love for Love V i: Odd, you’re cunning, a wary baggage.
[UK]M. Pix Beau Defeated II i: The Baggage is loose as the wanton Winds, yet she is Witty beyond her Sex.
[UK]N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:3 19: Next came a Pack of mincing Jades, / Attending as her Grace’s Maids / Of Honour, tho’ alas! the Title / Avail’d the Baggages but little.
[UK]T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 151: She, being a cunning baggage [...] persisted still that it was done by witchcraft.
[UK]S. Centlivre Artifice Act IV: O, you are a tempting Baggage.
[UK]C. Coffey Devil to Pay I i: Why, you most pestilent Baggage, will you be hoop’d?
[UK]Richardson Memoirs of the Life of Lady H 38: Son, the impudent Baggage will not go.
[UK]Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 354: She was a pert baggage, and did not deserve a liard.
[UK]A. Murphy Upholsterer I i: Stark-staring mad in Love with a Couple of Baggages not worth a Groat.
[UK]O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield (1883) 222: Tell them they are two arrant little baggages.
[UK]Sheridan Rivals (1776) II ii: Ah, then, you baggage! I’ll make it a truth presently.
[US]R. Tyler Contrast V ii: Oh! how I loved the little baggage!
[UK]M. Robinson Walsingham II 279: O! grand creatures! [...] fine jades! wonderful baggages!
[Ire]Spirit of Irish Wit 110: ‘They [i.e. nut shells] are all empty, you baggages’.
[UK]D. Humphreys Yankey in England 51: new.: I must go with the baggage. mrs. n.: With the baggage!
[UK]W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 267/1: Men the marriage state deride / Some folly of their own to hide, / When in a wife they have miscarried; / And some low, vulgar baggage married.
[UK]N.T.H. Bayly Spitalfields Weaver I ii: Don’t accuse your wife until you know she’s a baggage.
[UK]‘How to Win Her’ in Facetious Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 261: The baggage will think herself really divine, / And scorn you sure as a gun.
[Ire]S. Lover Handy Andy 145: ‘Come here! you baggage!’ he cried to Augusta.
[UK]R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 313: What the deuce did you bring that nasty old baggage here for?
[US]M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 324: I had observed her during the day as a garrulous, racketty sort of baggage.
A. Smith Dreamthorp 12: And Beauty, who is something of a coquette [...] goes off in a huff. Let the baggage go!
[UK]E. Greey Queen’s Sailors III 279: Here is a generous heart wot will be chucked away on some good-for-nothing baggage as soon as he lands.
[UK]Southern Reporter (Selkirk) 25 June 4/4: Then he saw a white hand [...] thrown back over the arm of a chair. ‘A woman! The impertinent baggage!’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 8/1: It isn’t so much the glass or two of drink, but the nasty, good-for-nothing baggages who serve them, me dear.
[UK]W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 260: None of your listenin’ through the key-’ole [...] you inquisitive ole baggage, you.
[UK]B.L. Farjeon Amblers 39: Go to, you saucy baggage!
[UK]H.G. Wells Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 61: She mucked up my mushroom bed, the baggage!
[US]H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 51: Them shameless young baggages from the school, with their short skirts and boys’ haircuts.
[Aus]K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 48: I thought you’d be glad to get the baggage off your hands.
[Aus]N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 71: ‘Sells liquor o’ the sawbeth’ ‘The daughter’s a baggage’.
[UK]R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 231: A pert cockney baggage with a cold sparkle in her eyes.
[US]E. Knight Lassie Come-Home 69: You’re an impertinent baggage.
[NZ]A.L. Cherrill Story of a N.Z. Sheep Farm 207: That girl’s no better than a baggage!
[US]A. Harrington Secret Swinger 162: A little teaser, she was. I said: ‘Look here, you baggage, either come home with me or have done.’.
[UK]T. Keyes All Night Stand 142: Baggages, hoydens, kittens, minxes, colleens.
P. O’Farrell Bk of Irish Farmers’ Jokes 9: ‘Excuse me sir,’ said an official to the farmer, ‘you must have your baggage disinfected.’ ‘The cheek of you, you impudent pup,’ said the farmer. ‘My wife has no diseases.’.
[UK]J. Baker Death Minus Zero (1998) 42: You wanna go round screwing some little baggage you just happened to run into, that’s fine.
[UK]H. Mantel Beyond Black 247: ‘Don’t play the innocent wiv me,’ he said. ‘You evil baggage.’.

4. a woman due to be sent to South America in the white slave trade.

[UK]A. Londres Road to Buenos Ayres in DU ‘Baggage’ means women, in the phrase of the men of the Centre.
[UK] in Hendrik de Leeuw Cities of Sin in DU.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak.

5. (US gay) the male genitals.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.

6. (US) one who watches a gambling game and advises the players but does not participate.

[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak.

In compounds

baggage-box (n.) (also baggage-boy)

(US) a homosexual prostitute who offers active sex to clients, i.e. as well as the usual passive participation in sodomy, he will play the active sodomizer and also offer fellatio.

[US] (ref. to 1940s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 112: Hustlers too have their sexual proclivities: a goofer (’40s) or a baggage [box]-boy allows only his cock to be the currency of sexual sale.
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 baggage-boy: a hustler that only allows his cock to be of sexual sale.
baggage-master (n.)

(US) a pimp.

[US]Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 7/3: You are a pretty good baggage master, but ‘can’t keep a hotel’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

baggage-man (n.) [pun on SE]

(UK Und.) that member of a pickpocketing team who is handed the booty and then runs off with it.

[UK]C. Hitchin Regulator 19: The Bagege Man, alias that is he that carries off the Booty.
[UK]J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 8: They us’d him only as a Baggage Man; that is, to loop off with the Cole when they had made a Prey.
[UK](con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxvi: The Baggage Man He that carries off the Booty.
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving .
baggage-smasher (n.) (also baggage bouncer)(US)

1. a railway porter.

Atlas (N.Y.) 4 July 1/2–3: [illus. of porter carrying a trunk on his shoulders] The Baggage Smasher.
[US]Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 8 Jan. 1/3–4: The 4th Class [of ‘vagrant, idle and vicious children’] are boys — they are termed ‘baggage smashers;’ they congregate around steamboat landings [...] apparently for the purpose of carrying parcels for individuals.
[US]Western Reserve Chron. (Warren, OH) 24 Oct. 1/7: The Baggage Smasher, bursting open a trunk by too hastily dropping it upon the deck, discovers a fatherless boy asleep inside!
E.E. Hale Ingham Papers 59: [The Boston hackman] is a wholly different man from the baggage-smasher of Babel, or from the cabman of London.
[US]Schele De Vere Americanisms 358: The baggage-smasher, as the porter is commonly called, handles his burdens with appalling recklessness.
[UK]Pall Mall Gazette 14 June n.p.: The Saratoga trunks are hurled recklessly by the ‘baggage-smashers’ on to the deck .
[US]F.S. Williams Our Iron Roads 325: An unknown genius [...] the other day entrusted a trunk, with a hive of bees in it, to the tender mercies of a Syracuse ‘baggage-smasher’.
[US]Butler Wkly Times (MO) 2 Sept. 3/3: The baggage-smasher has found a material that defies him. A papier mache trunk.
[US]Reno (NV) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: A railroad porter is a ‘baggage smasher’.
[US]L.A. Herald 19 Dec. 16/4: Just then the baggage smasher came in and threw them all out.
[US]Monroe City Democrat (MO) 11 July 6/5: ‘Look at that trunk,’ exclaimed the woman. [...] ‘Yessum, I’m looking at it,’ said the baggage smasher.
[US]Eve. Star (DC) 2 May 21/5: [advert] The Neverbreak wardrobe truink [...] is made to withstand the hardest onslauight of the baggage smasher.
[US]Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 4: baggage smasher. Hotel porter who handles trunks.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 115: The red-capped baggage-smashers were crying: ‘Take yo’ bag, suh?’.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. one who steals unguarded luggage from railway stations.

[US]N.Y. Herald 3 Sept. 2/3: [headline] A GANG OF BAGGAGE SMASHERS CAPTURED.
[US]N.Y. Herald 2/3: BAGGAGE SMASHER. -- A black fellow [...] was arrested [...] on a charge of stealing a valise.
[US]‘Q.K. Philander Doesticks’ Plu-ri-bus-tah 85–6: You shall there be met by swindlers, Shoulder-hitters, baggage smashers, And all kinds of shameless rascals.
[US]H.L. Williams Gay Life in N.Y. 11: He had heard of ‘baggage smashers’ who made away with countrymen’s trunks and left the owners shirtless in a strange city.
in W.S. Walsh Handy-Book of Lit. Curiosities (1892) 78: The baggage-smasher is indeed a terror .

3. a coarse, brutal person.

[US]N.-Y. Trib. 23 Nov. n.p.: Gamblers, emigrant-robbers, baggage-smashers, and all the worst classes of the city [W&F].