handbag

plural handbags

1. archaiccountableuncountableA small bag carried in the hand, used either when travelling or to carry tools for a specific job.First known use 19th c.

   From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   1 more example

   I put on my new suit and put my watch on and packed the other suit and the accessories and my razor and brushes in my hand bag […].

   1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

2. CommonwealthcountableuncountableA small bag used chiefly by women for carrying various small personal items, sometimes considered as a fashion accessory.First known use 19th c.

   An enormous amount of off-book money sloshes around Chinese business and officialdom, and some of it runs into handbags.

   2013, James Palmer, ‘Kept women’, Aeon

   2 more examples

   Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   In London, of all places, where people are always on the lookout for opportunities to commit crimes: an unzipped handbag, a phone sticking out of a back pocket, an unpadlocked bike.

   2020, Jess Ryder, The Night Away

   Synonyms: purse

3. abbreviationellipsisuncountableentertainmentEllipsis of handbag house.First known use 20th c.

present singular third person handbags · participle present handbagging · participle past handbagged · past handbagged

1. UKhumorousidiomaticmetonymicallytransitiveTo attack verbally or subject to criticism (typically used of a woman).

   ‘Apparently Birt happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on Sunday afternoon. Virginia saw him and handbagged him. She really was very cross.’

   1995, Nicholas Jones, Soundbites and Spin Doctors, London: Cassell, →ISBN, page 202

   1 more example

   My favourite part of the whole day was being handbagged by a reader who was quivering with rage and said, ‘You've changed everything!’ and complained about everything, even how easy the crossword was, as Dower filmed every foam-flecked word.

   2010, Rachel Johnson, A Diary of the Lady, London: Fig Tree, →ISBN, page 168