Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hobo, especially one who carries a bedroll.
Wiktionary
- n. US A tramp (hobo) who carries a bedroll or a bundle of possessions.
Etymologies
- From bindle + stiff. (Wiktionary)
- English bindle, bundle (probably from German dialectal bindel, from Middle High German bündel, from binden, to bind, from Old High German binten; see bhendh- in Indo-European roots) + stiff. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One of them, a criminal city that we call a bindlestiff, attacked and destroyed the other; we were too far away to prevent it.”
“But the bindlestiff was a migrant who stole from other migrants-he robbed their bindles, the bags they carried their few belongings in.”
“Lange's caption: 'More than 25 years as a bindlestiff.”
“To find out more about Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, call 1-877-BINDLES or see www. bindlestiff.org.”
“He would be traveling alone and unarmed, carrying only his bindlestiff and begging bowl in addition to the relic and its illuminated replica.”
“The monk untied his bindlestiff, spread its contents for display, and began to undress.”
“The abbot revived him, blessed him, called him a good simpleton, and sent him to pack his bindlestiff.”
“Joshua reached for his bindlestiff and went to obey the summons of his ruler.”
“And the cops, in pursuit of the bindlestiff on the city's own Dirac alarm, would eventually come to He to see whether or not the Okies had fulfilled their contract-and would find the planet as raw as ever.”
“All that remained to be done was to get some assessment of the weapons available to the bindlestiff; on this subject the ex-manic was ignorant, but the city's neurophysiologist said cautiously that something might be extracted from the catatonic within a month or two; thus far, he hadn't even succeeded in capturing the man's attention.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bindlestiff’.
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on the road again
nomad, itinerant, wanderer, gypsy, vagrant, ranger, floater, gadling, scatterling, landloper, wayfarer, rover and 59 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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Sound or sequence
dulcimer, borborygmi, ecchymosis, scrivener, fustilugs, zarf, bawdyhouse, googleable, archfiend, gymkhana, cuckoopint, pilpul and 104 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Words/Phrases that have crossed my path
palanquin, rhapsodical, cacology, sylvan, veranda, lithe, spittoon, aptronym, retronym, purloin, blithe, diaeresis and 134 more...
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Ffine ffettle
Words ending in double F
bailiff, mastiff, pontiff, plaintiff, distaff, dandruff, biff, blastoff, brushoff, bluff, buff, caitiff and 51 more...
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Ben's Favorite Words
callipygous, zugzwang, architectonic, phatic, craptacular, narthex, omphaloskepsis, jentacular, bungaloid, haberdashery, paraprosdokian, bindlestiff and 6 more...
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fritter's Words
fungo, euphonious, slake, portmanteau, crepuscular, meretricious, salutary, irrefragable, brilliandeer, supersede, postprandial, sporran and 57 more...
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On The Streets
rag-picker, hobo, street-urchin, tramp, vagrant, jarkman, clapperdogeon, mendicant, pauper, mooch, vagabond, cadger and 36 more...
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geopac19's Words
nugatory, bindlestiff, gandy dancer, ecdysiast, flense, meretricious
Tweets
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ecbrenner a hobo who carries a bedroll or his possessions. "And after Martin himself ran away, he used to whistle the song softly at night in the jungles, after the other bindlestiffs were asleep." --Rober Bloch, "That Hell-Bound Train" Mar 9, 2009