Word.ws English Dictionary

bean-eater

bean-eater noun: a Mexican.

Noun

bean-eater (plural bean-eaters)

  1. (US, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) A Mexican.
  2. (US, dated, derogatory) A Bostonian (a person from Boston, Massachusetts).

Forms of bean-eater

pluralbean-eaters
alternative formbean eater
alternative formbeaneater

Origin of bean-eater

The sense referring to Mexicans is explained by beans being a staple of Mexican cuisine. The sense referring to Bostonians came from a time when navy beans were a staple in Boston, especially as Boston baked beans. It is sometimes said to have originated in reference to immigrants there, but in usage it more often has referred to Boston Brahmins just as much as other Bostonians, and the assertion may well be only an ill-founded assumption.

Questions about bean-eater

What does bean-eater mean?
Bean-eater means a Mexican.
What part of speech is bean-eater?
Bean-eater is a noun.
What is the plural of bean-eater?
The plural of bean-eater is bean-eaters.

Words near bean-eater in the dictionary

  1. bean-counter
  2. bean-counters
  3. bean-crake
  4. bean-dolphin
  5. bean-dolphins
  6. bean-eater
  7. bean-eaters
  8. bean-feast
  9. bean-feasts
  10. bean-fed
  11. bean-flicker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bean-eater (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bean-eater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bean-eater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.