old bag
8
9.9
- noun
- Slur
:
vieja bruja
- Hillary: Does anyone even know where that useless old bag went?
- old bag of bones
Examples
-
This one's for Alex, you old bag!
-
"What's the point in getting mixed up with that old bag?"
Fiction book (1990) -
- What an old bag she is.
-
I mean, I thought it was going to be really hard to get money out of that old bag.
-
You are NOT an old bag!
Fiction book (2000) -
Shut up, you old bag!
Blog text (2) -
That old bag Hotchkiss must be long dead by now.
-
She sounds like a proper old bag to me.
-
In our society, you're considered an old bag, she reminded herself.
Fiction book (1990) -
That old bag always complains about everything, making her quite unpleasant to be around.
Synonyms
17
9.7
An older person who seems out of touch and set in their ways
5
9.5
An informal rude word for an older woman who is tough and speaks her mind
3
9.9
An unpleasant, bossy older woman who scolds people
Usually said about a woman who is often rude and complains a lot
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The insult 'old bag' is directly built from the adjective 'old' (elderly) plus 'bag' used as a derogatory term for an unpleasant woman, so the overall meaning is predictable from the parts. Although informal and offensive, this is a straightforward adjectival + noun composition rather than an idiomatic shift, making it comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The insult old bag may come from the older phrase old baggage; one popular story says 'baggage' was a rude name for a difficult woman, like a heavy bag you want to leave behind. That's why old bag means 'an unpleasant, annoying, or bad-tempered older woman'.