swagman
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: compound
Etymology: From swag (“items stolen by a thief; unlawfully obtained goods; (Australia, New Zealand) bundle of personal items carried by a tramp, traveller, etc.”) + man.
Compound parts: swag
man
Inflected forms:
form: swagmen
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A man who travels around with a swag (“bundle of personal items”); specifically, an itinerant person, often seeking work in exchange for food and lodging.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
historical
examples: And then the swagman was such a companionable little fellow, and told such funny little yarns, and sung so many snatches of odd songs whilst he was at work that once or twice the old man relaxed the cross expression of his facial muscles, and allowed himself to be betrayed into a grim smile, and at last suffered himself to be drawn into conversation, although his answers were short and snappish.
Then the bells struck up for church, and the streets became crowded with well-dressed, warmly-clothed people, hurrying to their various places of worship, and casting glances of pitying curiosity at the two miserable, half-drowned swagmen as they passed.
[T]he class who exercise the most depressing influence on these rates, little as the unhappy men think themselves so, will be found to consist of idlers and swagmen.
Some men, under this plea of "wanting a job," are merely travelling from one part of the country to another for private reasons, and they pick up meat, bread, and tea at each station they pass. [...] We have already remarked that these bush- or swagmen carry "swags," i.e. a blanket made up into a roll six feet in length; the two ends lashed together making the whole resemble one huge horse-collar: this is carried either hanging from one shoulder or resting on the head and back like a coalheaver's pad.
Oh! there once was a swagman camped in a Billabong, / Under the shade of a Coolabah tree; / And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling, / "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"
She was not afraid of horsemen; but swagmen, going to, or worse, coming from the dismal, drunken little township, a day′s journey beyond, terrified her. One had called at the house today, and asked for tucker.
In his prose works Landlopers and Knocking Round, [John Le Gay] Brereton penned affectionate portraits of shearers, swagmen and farmers' wives, based on people he had met on his walks.
The policeman thought it best to surprise the man, since he might be armed, so he disguised himself as a swagman and pounced as the man returned from his bridge-painting job.
gloss: A person who sells or trades in trinkets or items of low value.
pos: noun
tags: UK
archaic
examples: The practice of selling by commission, the same as I have shown to prevail among the costers, exists among the miscellaneous dealers of whom I am treating, who are known among street-folk as "swag-barrowmen," or, in the popular ellipsis, "penny swags;" the word "swag" meaning, as I before showed, a collection—a lot. The "swag-men" are often confounded with the "lot-sellers"; [...]
gloss: A middleman who buys and sells stolen goods; a fence.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: He is, in the street talk, a swagman, one of perhaps hundreds of hustlers in the city who distribute an estimated $5-million worth of goods ripped off each year at New York's airports, waterfronts, factories and truck parts. [...] According to Tommy, the mob uses swagmen like himself as down-the-line distributors for these large jobs.
Related words: swag
swag it
Derived words: swagger
swaggie
Translations: