carpetbag

plural carpetbags · alternative archaic carpet-bag

1. A traveling bag made from scraps of carpet and widely used in the United States (and elsewhere) in the 19ᵗʰ century.

   Pen jumped out of the carriage then, his carpet-bag in hand, and briskly determined to face his fortune.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 74, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

present singular third person carpetbags · participle present carpetbagging · participle past carpetbagged · past carpetbagged · alternative archaic carpet-bag

1. USTo come to a place or organisation with which one has no previous connection with the sole or primary aim of personal gain, especially political or financial gain.

   The Five Star Movement has long railed against carpetbagging, but for all of Ms. D’Alessandro’s efforts to seem of the place — talking about her childhood in Naples and showing the bar where she had her first date — she clearly isn’t.

   2018 February 23, Jason Horowitz, “Italy’s ‘Five Star’ Grows Up Into a Real Party, Scandals and All”, in New York Times

alternative archaic carpet-bag

1. USnot comparableHaving the characteristics of carpetbaggers.

   carpetbag travels