bindlestiff

plural bindlestiffs

1. USA tramp (hobo) who carries a bedroll or a bundle of possessions.

   And before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.

   1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden

   3 more examples

   The hobo was a migrant worker, generally honest. The tramp would make a living stealing but there would be mutual respect between them. The bindlestiff on the otherhand was the lowest of the low for he would steal from the bindles of his fellow wanderers.

   1950, James Blish, Cities in Flight

   She had been born in Tucson, mother full-blooded Cherokee, father a bindlestiff on his way through.

   1967, Harlan Ellison, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes

   AP Finance was tucked somewhere between South Central and the vestigial river, hometown of Indians and bindlestiffs and miscellaneous drinkers of Midnight Special […]

   2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 315