handbag

noun

1. 1

   archaicA small bag carried in the hand, used either when travelling or to carry tools for a specific job.

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

   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 […].

2. 2

   A small bag used chiefly by women for carrying various small personal items, sometimes considered as a fashion accessory.

   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.

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

   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.

3. 3

   Variant of handbag houseEllipsis of handbag house.

verb

1. 1

   To 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.’

   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.

Forms

plural

handbags

past tense

handbagged

past participle

handbagged

present participle

handbagging

third person singular

handbags