bindle stiff
noun
: hobo
especially : one who carries his clothes or bedding in a bundle
Did you know?
In the argot of tramps and hoboes, a roll of clothes and bedding was called a bindle, a word that probably originated as an alteration of the more familiar bundle. Stiff itself can mean "hobo" or "migrant worker," meanings it took on in the late 19th century. About the same time, any tramp or hobo who habitually carried such a pack was known as a bindle stiff. In Australia, a pack-carrying hobo might be called a swagman.
Synonyms
- bum
- bummer
- hobo
- sundowner [Australian]
- swaggie [chiefly Australian]
- swagman [chiefly Australian]
- tramp
- vagabond
- vagrant
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
upon graduation from college he wandered around the country as a bindle stiff, naively believing that he was at one with the downtrodden
Word History
First Known Use
1897, in the meaning defined above
bindle stiffs
noun
as in beggars
a homeless wanderer who may beg or steal for a living upon graduation from college he wandered around the country as a bindle stiff, naively believing that he was at one with the downtrodden Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- beggars
- hobos
- swaggies
- hoboes
- tramps
- bums
- transients
- swagmen
- vagrants
- sundowners
- vagabonds
- dodgers
- derelicts
- drifters
- roamers
- bummers
- stiffs
- mendicants
- panhandlers
- shirkers
- slackers
- urchins
- malingerers
- waifs
- ragamuffins
- gamines
