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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bag.

A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bæɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/baɡ/British, Southern, Standard/baːɡ/British, Southern, Standard/baɡ/Northern-England, Scotland
  1. A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A container made of leather, plastic, or other material, usually with a handle or handles, in which you carry personal items, or clothes or other things that you need for travelling. Includes shopping bags, schoolbags, suitcases, briefcases, handbags, backpacks, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  3. One's preference.

    colloquial · countable · uncountable
    Acid House is not my bag: I prefer the more traditional styles of music.
  4. An ugly woman.

    countable · derogatory · uncountable
  5. The cloth-covered pillow used for first, second, and third base.

    countable · uncountable
    The grounder hit the bag and bounced over the fielder’s head.
  6. First, second, or third base.

    countable · uncountable
    He headed back to the bag.
  7. A breathalyzer, so named because it formerly had a plastic bag over the end to measure a set amount of breath.

    countable · uncountable
  8. A collection of objects, disregarding order, but (unlike a set) in which elements may be repeated.

    countable · uncountable
    A bag of three apples could be represented symbolically as {a,a,a}. Or, letting 'r' denote 'red apple' and 'g' denote 'green apple', then a bag of three red apples and two green apples could be denoted as {r,r,r,g,g}.
  9. A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance.

    countable · uncountable
    the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents
  10. A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance. An udder, especially the pendulous one of a dairy cow.

    countable · uncountable
    Her bag is coming in nicely now.
  11. A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance. The human female breast.

    countable · plural-normally · uncountable
  12. A pouch tied behind a man's head to hold the back-hair of a wig; a bag wig.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  13. The quantity of game bagged in a hunt.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A unit of measure of cement equal to 94 pounds.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  15. A dark circle under the eye, caused by lack of sleep, drug addiction etc.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
  16. A large number or amount.

    countable · informal · uncountable
  17. In certain phrases: money.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  18. A fellow gay man.

    US · countable · derogatory · slang · uncountable
  19. A small envelope that contains drugs, especially narcotics.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  20. The scrotum.

    countable · slang · uncountable · vulgar
  21. £1000, a grand.

    Cockney · countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Old Norse baggibor.? Old French baguebor.? Middle English bagge English bag Inherited from Middle English bagge, from Old Norse baggi (“bag, pack, satchel, bundle”) (whence also Old French bague (“bundle, package, sack”)); related to Old Norse bǫggr (“harm, shame; load, burden”), of uncertain origin.

verb/bæɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/baɡ/British, Southern, Standard/baːɡ/British, Southern, Standard/baɡ/Northern-England, Scotland
  1. To put into a bag.

    transitive
  2. To take with oneself, to assume into one's score To catch or kill, especially when fishing or hunting.

    informal · transitive
    We bagged three deer yesterday.
  3. To take with oneself, to assume into one's score To gain possession of something, or to make first claim on something.

    transitive
  4. To take with oneself, to assume into one's score To steal.

    slang · transitive
  5. To take with oneself, to assume into one's score To take a woman away with one as a romantic or sexual interest.

    slang · transitive
  6. To take with oneself, to assume into one's score To arrest.

    slang · transitive
  7. To furnish or load with a bag.

    transitive
  8. To furnish or load with a bag. To provide with artificial ventilation via a bag valve mask (BVM) resuscitator.

    transitive
  9. To furnish or load with a bag. To fit with a bag to collect urine.

    transitive
  10. To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag To (cause to) swell or hang down like a full bag.

    ambitransitive · obsolete
    The skin bags from containing morbid matter.
    The brisk wind bagged the sails.
  11. To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag To hang like an empty bag.

    His trousers bag at the knees.
  12. To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag To drop away from the correct course.

    intransitive
  13. To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag To become pregnant.

    intransitive · obsolete
  14. To forget, ignore, or get rid of.

  15. To laugh uncontrollably.

    slang
  16. To criticise sarcastically.

    Australia · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Old Norse baggibor.? Old French baguebor.? Middle English bagge English bag Inherited from Middle English bagge, from Old Norse baggi (“bag, pack, satchel, bundle”) (whence also Old French bague (“bundle, package, sack”)); related to Old Norse bǫggr (“harm, shame; load, burden”), of uncertain origin.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.