flea bag

plural flea bags

1. slangA disreputable place of accommodation.

   I stayed in this hotel last year, I hated it, it's a flea bag.

   1993, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day

   1 more example

   It's not a flea bag or one of those two hour hotels with the girls coming and going.

   2010, Isaac Hallenberg, The Dwarf's Doubloons, →ISBN, page 63

2. derogatoryslangAn unkempt mammal, especially a dog or cat.

   I scooped this little flea bag up and headed to the bathroom.

   2012, Chrystal Parker, Daily Dose of Dogs (Aka Cats with Your Coffee), →ISBN, page 379

   1 more example

   The animal was far from being a 'mangy old flea-bag'; and in fact had a nice glossy coat and was a well built cart horse.

   2012, Ewart R N Jowett, The Wizard of the Stove Pipe Mountains, →ISBN

3. slangA sleeping bag.

   I pulled myself out of my flea-bag and reached for my clothes.

   1997, Wilfred R. Bion, War Memoirs 1917-1919, →ISBN, page 179

   2 more examples

   I slept out in my flea-bag each night—the weather was almost too hot for long-disatnce cycling—and had unwound considerably by the time I reached Mainz.

   1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels, page 223

   Consuelo was so taken by Freyberg that she presented him with a Jaeger sleeping bag. On their last night of leave at Seymour Street, Flora entertained Eddie Marsh and Rupert Brooke to dinner with Johnny and Freyberg. When they had returned to camp, Johnny wrote to his mother that Freyberg was so pleased with the 'flea bag' that he'd christened it 'Consuelo'.

   2012, Tim Carroll, The Dodger

4. A poor and disreputable person.

   O'Kelly whispered hoarsely, “Speak, you wretched flea-bag.

   2007, DJ Birmingham, The Queen's Tale: The Struggle for the Survival of Ireland, →ISBN, page 124

   1 more example

   He clearly had some of the spunk from the war left in him, for Tim always found the man addressing him as “flea bag,” “scum” or “maggot.”

   2003, Charles Merrill, The Hidden Gift, →ISBN, page 5