sugarbag

plural sugarbags · alternative sugar bag · alternative sugar-bag

1. countableA bag, typically made of cloth, for holding sugar.

   Bradly hung the fowl in a sugar-bag for to-morrow's dinner and set about grilling chops, with tomatoes stuffed with cheese and breadcrumbs in the pan.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 139

   1 more example

   He took the reeking sack as if there were indeed huskies waiting to devour its contents and added it to his load: a sugarbag of provisions, a bottle of fresh water from the tap in the yard that went stright down to another invisible river that flowed far beneath their feet.

   2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 25

2. AustraliauncountableWild honey or honeycomb.

   One day Djungun said to his wives, 'I will help you to hunt for sugarbag.'

   1980, Daisy Utemorrah, Visions of Mowanjum: Aboriginal Writings from the Kimberley, page 43

   5 more examples

   Still clinging, with sharp, expert blows she tomahawked into the hollow, exactly at the spot where the sugar-bag was.

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 272

   That way — north. And he tryin to go right to Akwerrkepentye. And he reckon he bin seein 'What's this one?' And he can hearem, you know. 'Ay, sugarbag, some one. Might be sugarbag here.' And he can hearem, 'Ah, yeah, sugarbag, all right.'

   1993, Grace Koch, Harold Koch, Kaytetye Country: An Aboriginal History of the Barrow Creek Area

   Two significant resources requiring special tools were tree grubs and wild honey or 'sugarbag'.

   1996, Records of the South Australian Museum, volumes 29-30, page 71

   Sugarbag is a widely used colloquial Aboriginal-English name for the honey from native bees.

   2004, Vic Cherikoff, Dining Downunder: The Cook Book, page 157

   While gathering 'sugarbag', or native honey, a day or so later, the young teenagers again came very close to being shot: The troopers were dog tired. Rosie was up in the tree chopping out a sugarbag with a stone axe.

   2005, Tony Roberts, Frontier Justice: A History of the Gulf Country to 1900