Word.ws English Dictionary

carpetbagging

carpetbagging is the present participle and gerund of carpetbag.

Meaning of carpetbag

Verb

carpetbag (third-person singular simple present carpetbags, present participle carpetbagging, simple past and past participle carpetbagged)

  1. (US) To come to a place or organisation with which one has no previous connection with the sole or primary aim of personal gain, especially political or financial gain.
    • The Five Star Movement has long railed against carpetbagging, but for all of Ms. D’Alessandro’s efforts to seem of the place — talking about her childhood in Naples and showing the bar where she had her first date — she clearly isn’t.2018 February 23, Jason Horowitz, “Italy’s ‘Five Star’ Grows Up Into a Real Party, Scandals and All”, in New York Times

See all 3 meanings of carpetbag

Questions about carpetbagging

What is carpetbagging the present participle and gerund of?
Carpetbagging is the present participle and gerund of carpetbag.

Words near carpetbagging in the dictionary

  1. carpetbag steaks
  2. carpetbagged
  3. carpetbagger
  4. carpetbaggers
  5. carpetbaggery
  6. carpetbagging
  7. carpetbaggism
  8. carpetbagism
  9. carpetbags
  10. carpetball
  11. carpetbeater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carpetbagging (page history and authors); carpetbag (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: “carpetbagging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carpetbagging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.