handbag
/ˈhændˌbæɡ/
handbag noun: a small bag carried in the hand, used either when travelling or to carry tools for a specific job. Also the ellipsis of handbag house.
Noun
handbag (countable and uncountable, plural handbags)
- A 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.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
- 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 […].1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
- 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.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- An enormous amount of off-book money sloshes around Chinese business and officialdom, and some of it runs into handbags.2013, James Palmer, ‘Kept women’, Aeon
- Synonyms:
- purse
Verb
handbag (third-person singular simple present handbags, present participle handbagging, simple past and past participle handbagged)
- 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.’1995, Nicholas Jones, Soundbites and Spin Doctors, London: Cassell, →ISBN, page 202
- 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.2010, Rachel Johnson, A Diary of the Lady, London: Fig Tree, →ISBN, page 168
Also used as
handbag is also the ellipsis of handbag house.
handbag meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
handbag in Hindi
- small bag carried in the hand
- हैंडबैग haiṇḍbaig
handbag in Tamil
- கைப்பை
handbag in Marathi
- हाताची पिशवी
handbag in Urdu
- small bag carried in the hand
- ہَینْڈ بَیگ hainḍ baig, دَسْتی بَٹْوَہ dastī baṭva, دَسْتی بَیگ dastī baig
More languagesFewer languages
- handbag in Bengali
- হাতব্যাগ hatobbag, হ্যান্ডব্যাগ hênḍobbag
- handbag in Telugu
- హ్యాండ్బ్యాగ్, హ్యాండ్బాగ్
- handbag in Malayalam
- ഹാൻഡ്ബാഗ്
- handbag in Kannada
- ಹ್ಯಾಂಡ್ಬ್ಯಾಗ್
- handbag in Punjabi
- ਹੈਂਡਬੈਗ
- handbag in Gujarati
- હેન્ડબેગ
- handbag in Nepali
- ह्यान्डब्याग, हातब्याग
- handbag in Pashto
- د لاس کڅوړه də lās kačoṛa, لاس بکس lās baks
- handbag in Arabic
- حَقِيبَةُ يَد ḥaqībatu yad, مَثْبَنَة maṯbana, شَنْطَة šanṭa
- handbag in Malay
- beg tangan
- handbag in Indonesian
- tas tangan
- handbag in Thai
- กระเป๋าถือ grà-bpǎo-tʉ̌ʉ, กระเป๋าหิ้ว grà-bpǎo-hîu
- handbag in Vietnamese
- túi xách tay, bị cầm tay, túi xách
- handbag in Myanmar
- လက်ကိုင်အိတ် lakkuing-it, လက်ဆွဲအိတ် lakhcwai:it, လက်ပွေ့အိတ် lakpwe.it
Examples of handbag in a sentence
- That handbag is a copy. You can tell because the buckle is different.
- That handbag is hers. These gloves are also hers.
- She cracked him over the head with her handbag.
Synonyms of handbag
Forms of handbag
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | handbags |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | handbags |
| present participle | handbagging |
| past participle | handbagged |
| past | handbagged |
Origin of handbag
From hand + bag. The music genre is named from women dancing around a pile of their handbags in nightclubs. The verb is a reference to Margaret Thatcher's handbag.
Words formed from handbag
Phrases with handbag
Questions about handbag
- What does handbag mean?
- Handbag means a small bag carried in the hand, used either when travelling or to carry tools for a specific job.
- What is handbag in Hindi?
- Handbag in Hindi is हैंडबैग (haiṇḍbaig). See Handbag meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is handbag?
- Handbag can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce handbag?
- Handbag is pronounced /ˈhændˌbæɡ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of handbag?
- The plural of handbag is handbags.
Words near handbag in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: handbag (page history and authors); handbag (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); handbag (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-handbag.ogg.
Cite this entry: “handbag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/handbag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.