carpetbagger

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Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

carpetbag +‎ -er

[edit] Noun

Singular
carpetbagger

Plural
carpetbaggers

carpetbagger (plural carpetbaggers)

  1. (politics, chiefly US) A candidate who runs in a district where he or she has not previously held residence.
    Though he lived and worked in Los Angeles for sixteen years, the candidate for Attorney General is no carpetbagger; he was born and raised in this state and graduated from the state university.
  2. (US, often capitalized) One of several Northern politicians who migrated to the South during Reconstruction and held public office.
  3. (US, pejorative, by extension) a Northerner with no Southern ties who migrates to the South for work.
    He's just a carpetbagger who was surprised to find that Southerns are not like the cast of The Dukes of Hazzard or Deliverance.
  4. (pejorative, by extension) One who comes to a place or organisation with which they have no previous connection with the sole or primary aim of personal gain, especially political or financial gain; one who carpetbags
  5. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (British, pejorative) One who attempts to force a mutual organisation, such as a building society, to demutualise — to list on a stock exchange, solely for personal pecuniary advantage.

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