carpetbagger

[ kahr-pit-bag-er ]
See synonyms for carpetbagger on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. U.S. History. a Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War and became active in Republican politics, especially so as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during Reconstruction.

  2. a politician who takes up residence in a place and runs for office without having strong ties to the area.

  1. any opportunistic or exploitive outsider: Our bus company has served this town for years, but now the new one run by carpetbaggers from the city is stealing our business.

Origin of carpetbagger

1
An Americanism first recorded in 1865–70; carpetbag + -er1; so called because they came South carrying their belongings in carpetbags

Other words from carpetbagger

  • car·pet·bag·ger·y, noun

Words Nearby carpetbagger

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use carpetbagger in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for carpetbagger

carpetbagger

/ (ˈkɑːpɪtˌbæɡə) /


noun
  1. a politician who seeks public office in a locality where he has no real connections

  2. British a person who makes a short-term investment in a mutual savings or life-assurance organization in order to benefit from free shares issued following the organization's conversion to a public limited company

  1. US a Northern White who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from Reconstruction

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012