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a container or receptacle of leather, plastic, cloth, paper, etc., capable of being closed at the mouth; pouch.
something resembling or suggesting such a receptacle.
a suitcase or other portable container for carrying articles, as in traveling.
a purse or moneybag.
the amount or quantity a bag can hold.
any of various measures of capacity.
a sac, as in an animal body.
an udder.
Slang. a small glassine or cellophane envelope containing a narcotic drug or a mixture of narcotics.
something hanging in a loose, pouchlike manner, as skin or cloth; a baggy part:
He had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.
Baseball. base1 (def 8b).
Hunting. the amount of game taken, especially by one hunter in one hunting trip or over a specified period.
Slang.

a person’s avocation, hobby, major interest, or obsession:
Jazz isn’t my bag.
a person’s mood or frame of mind:
The boss is in a mean bag today.
an environment, condition, or situation.

bags.

Informal. plenty; much; many (usually followed by of):
bags of time; bags of money.
Slang. trousers.

to swell or bulge:
A stiff breeze made the sails bag out.
to hang loosely like an empty bag:
His socks bagged at the ankles.
to pack groceries or other items into a bag.
to cause to swell or bulge; distend:
The wind bagged the curtain.
to put into a bag.
Informal. to kill or catch, as in hunting:
I bagged my first deer when I was a teenager.
Theater, clew (def 9a).
bags! British Slang. (used to lay first claim to something):
Bags it! Bags, I go first!
Slang. to quit, abandon, or skip:
I bagged my math class today. We’d better bag the deal. I was working too hard so I decided to bag it.
bag and baggage,

with all one’s personal property:
When they went to collect the rent, they found he had left, bag and baggage.
completely, totally:
The equipment had disappeared, bag and baggage, without even the slightest trace.

bag of bones, an emaciated person or animal.
bag of tricks, a supply of expedient resources; stratagems:
Maybe they will finally be honest with us, once they’ve run through their bag of tricks.
hold the bag, Informal. to be forced to bear the entire blame, responsibility, or loss that was to have been shared:
His accomplices flew to South America on news of the theft and left him holding the bag.
in the bag, Informal. virtually certain; assured; definite:
Her promotion is in the bag. The sale of the house is in the bag.
old bag, Slang. an unattractive, often slatternly woman:
a gossipy old bag.
Contemporary Examples

Picking up cans and bags out of the bin and throwing them back, over and over.
The Stacks: A Chicken Dinner That Mends Your Heart Pete Dexter December 6, 2014

Against the advice of friends and family, I packed my bags and bought a plane ticket to Kabul.
Top Afghan General: Taliban Defeat Would Take Less Than a Year Magsie Hamilton-Little July 30, 2012

And you should spill burning secrets, as cats will leap out of bags one way or another.
Horoscopes: The Week of April 3 Starsky + Cox April 2, 2011

In fashion, it was an era of big logos and “It bags” and provocative advertising.
How Bottega Veneta Is Keeping Luxury Relevant Daily Beast Promotions April 12, 2009

Back in the 2011 season, the Colombian crop took a nosedive, dropping from 12 million bags to 7.6 million.
Will Coffee Rust Hurt Starbucks? Nina Strochlic June 7, 2014

Historical Examples

But there it was, and, by means of a pile of bags, the two Englishmen found a convenient way of reaching it.
In the grip of the Mullah F. S. Brereton

He opened the bags, spilling their contents out on the boards, and checked their count.
Millennium Everett B. Cole

This one lent us soap, that one a towel, a third and fourth helped us to undo our bags.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition Robert Louis Stevenson

The mixture is then put into the bags in which we see it for sale in the stores.
Diggers in the Earth Eva March Tappan

ON our way back we took up the gourd bowls and plates, which we found quite dry and hard as bone, and put them in our bags.
The Swiss Family Robinson Told in Words of One Syllable Mary Godolphin

plural noun
(informal) a lot; a great deal
short for Oxford bags
(Brit, informal) any pair of trousers
interjection
(childrens slang, Brit & Austral) Also bags I. an indication of the desire to do, be, or have something
(Austral & NZ) rough as bags, rough as sacks, uncouth
noun
a flexible container with an opening at one end
Also called bagful. the contents of or amount contained in such a container
any of various measures of quantity, such as a bag containing 1 hundredweight of coal
a piece of portable luggage
short for handbag
anything that hangs loosely, sags, or is shaped like a bag, such as a loose fold of skin under the eyes or the bulging part of a sail
any pouch or sac forming part of the body of an animal, esp the udder of a cow
(hunting) the quantity of quarry taken in a single hunting trip or by a single hunter
(derogatory, slang) an ugly or bad-tempered woman (often in the phrase old bag)
(slang) a measure of marijuana, heroin, etc, in folded paper
(slang) a person’s particular taste, field of skill, interest, activity, etc: blues is his bag
(informal) bag and baggage

with all one’s belongings
entirely

a bag of bones, a lean creature
(slang) in the bag, almost assured of succeeding or being obtained
(informal) the bag of tricks, the whole bag of tricks, every device; everything
verb bags, bagging, bagged
(transitive) to put into a bag
to bulge or cause to bulge; swell
(transitive) to capture or kill, as in hunting
(transitive) to catch, seize, or steal
(intransitive) to hang loosely; sag
(transitive) to achieve or accomplish: she bagged seven birdies
(transitive) (Brit, informal) to reserve or secure the right to do or to have something: he bagged the best chair
(transitive) (Austral, slang) to criticize; disparage
n.

c.1200, bagge, from Old Norse baggi or a similar Scandinavian source; not found in other Germanic languages, perhaps ultimately of Celtic origin. Disparaging slang for “woman” dates from 1924 (though various specialized senses of this are much older). Meaning “person’s area of interest or expertise” is 1964, from Black English slang, from jazz sense of “category,” probably via notion of putting something in a bag.

To be left holding the bag (and presumably nothing else), “cheated, swindled” is attested by 1793. Many figurative senses are from the notion of the game bag (late 15c.) into which the product of the hunt was placed; e.g. the verb meaning “to kill game” (1814) and its colloquial extension to “catch, seize, steal” (1818). To let the cat out of the bag “reveal the secret” is from 1760.
v.

mid-15c., “to swell out like a bag;” also “to put money in a bag,” from bag (n.). Earliest verbal sense was “to be pregnant” (c.1400). Of clothes, “to hang loosely,” 1824. For sense “catch, seize, steal,” see bag (n.). Related: Bagged; bagging.

bag (bāg)
n.

An anatomical sac or pouch, such as the udder of a cow.

A container of flexible material, such as paper, plastic, or leather, that is used for carrying or storing items.

noun

Trousers (mid-1800s+ British)
A woman’s breasts; tits (mid-1600s+)
A great quantity: He’s got bags of money (1920+)

Related Terms

moneybags

noun

The scrotum (1920s+)
A condom; rubber, scumbag (1950s+)
The cushionlike marker that serves as a base (mid-1800s+ Baseball)
A portion of narcotics, often wrapped in a paper or glassine envelope: They found three nickel bags of marijuana on him (1960s+ Narcotics)
A woman’s breast • Bag has long meant an animal’s udder (mid-1600s+)
An unattractive girl or woman; ugly woman (1920s+)
That which one prefers or is doing currently; kick, thing •Said to be fr bag of tricks (1950s+ Jazz musicians)
One’s preference; something suited to one’s preferences or talents: Archaeology is her bag, man
n environment; milieu; scene: That fox comes out of a very intellectual bag (1950s+ Jazz musicians)

verb

To get or capture: to bag a gold medal/ They bagged the mugger in the next block (1814+)
To arrest; bust, collar: You don’t have to bag nuns (1800s+)
To discharge; can, fire, sack: Just say the author was willing to bag an old friend (mid-1800s+)
To suppress; get rid of; discard: Let’s bag the whole notion, okay? (1960s+)
(also bag it) To avoid; not attend; skip: We can bag gym class/ Like bag this movie, for sure (1892+ Students)
(also bag it) To abandon; cease; give up: I had to bag it. I had to give up all that stuff (1980s+ Students)
To include; categorize; group with: We’re always bagged in England with bands like Iron Maiden (1960s+)
To break into for a clandestine investigation; do a black-bag job on: we picked up conversations by traveling execs, then ”bagged” their hotel rooms to rummage through attache´ cases (1990s+)
BAG ON someone (1990s+)
To inhale fumes of an intoxicating substance: the dangers of inhaling, sniffing, and ”bagging” such chemicals (1960s+ Narcotics)

Related Terms

brown-bag, dime bag, ditty bag, doggy bag, douche bag, fag bag, fleabag, grab-bag, hair bag, half in the bag, have a bag on, in the bag, jiffy bag, let the cat out of the bag, nickel bag, old bag, rum bag, sandbag, sleazebag, slimebag, stash bag, tie a bag on, windbag
busting a gut [laughing]
Bachelor of Agriculture

(1.) A pocket of a cone-like shape in which Naaman bound two pieces of silver for Gehazi (2 Kings 5:23). The same Hebrew word occurs elsewhere only in Isa. 3:22, where it is rendered “crisping-pins,” but denotes the reticules (or as R.V., “satchels”) carried by Hebrew women. (2.) Another word (kees) so rendered means a bag for carrying weights (Deut. 25:13; Prov. 16:11; Micah 6:11). It also denotes a purse (Prov. 1:14) and a cup (23:31). (3.) Another word rendered “bag” in 1 Sam. 17:40 is rendered “sack” in Gen. 42:25; and in 1 Sam. 9:7; 21:5 “vessel,” or wallet for carrying food. (4.) The word rendered in the Authorized Version “bags,” in which the priests bound up the money contributed for the restoration of the temple (2 Kings 12:10), is also rendered “bundle” (Gen. 42:35; 1 Sam. 25:29). It denotes bags used by travellers for carrying money during a journey (Prov. 7:20; Hag. 1:6). (5.) The “bag” of Judas was a small box (John 12:6; 13:29).

bag and baggage
bag it
bag of tricks