baggage

(emotional) baggage

Emotional pain caused by or related to upsetting or traumatic experiences that one has endured earlier in life. We all carry emotional baggage with us as we go through life, but learning to deal with those fears and insecurities is how we grow as people. It quickly became clear that the woman I was dating had been carrying a lot of baggage that I was just not prepared to deal with. I know you think you have a lot of baggage from your divorce, but who wouldn't? That's such a hard thing to have to go through.

See also: baggage

bag and baggage

With all of one's possessions. You need to be out of your dorm room, bag and baggage, by Monday morning. That guy must have just gotten evicted—why else would he be standing, bag and baggage, in the middle of the sidewalk? He just showed up at my door this morning, bag and baggage! What am I supposed to do? He can't live here with us!

See also: and, bag, baggage

carry excess baggage

euphemism

1. To continue to be deeply affected by upsetting or traumatic experiences that one endured earlier in life. We all carry excess baggage with us as we go through life, but learning how to deal with those fears and insecurities is how we grow as people. It quickly became clear that the woman I was dating had been carrying a lot of excess baggage that I was just not prepared to deal with. I know you think you're carrying a lot of excess baggage from your divorce, but who wouldn't? That's such a hard thing to have to go through.

2. To have excess body fat. I decided that I was going to start going to the gym every day once I noticed that I was carrying excess baggage around my waist. We design clothes made specifically for those who carry a little excess baggage. A: "Have you weighed yourself lately?" B: "No. I have no need to confirm that I'm carrying some excess baggage."

See also: baggage, carry, excess

excess baggage

1. Literally, travel luggage that exceeds the dimensions of size or weight normally allowed on a plane or train, usually requiring a fee for it to be allowed onboard. My suitcase was only slightly over the weight limit, but the airline clerk still insisted on labeling my suitcase as excess baggage and slapping me with a fine. That bag of yours weighs a ton! It's definitely gonna count as excess baggage. All right, so it's excess baggage. How much extra do I have to pay?

2. Any person or thing that is unnecessary or unwanted and thus is or becomes burdensome. I know it's ungenerous, but Martin's younger brother has been nothing but excess baggage since we agreed to let him live with us. Can you watch the kids while I go get groceries? They'd just be excess baggage I'd have to drag around the supermarket. Can't you take on some of this to-do list? It would be excess baggage for me, I already have 100 things to do today!

3. A personal history, emotional disposition, or traumatic experience that is or becomes debilitating or burdensome in life. He carried the excess baggage of his abusive parents with him for years after leaving home. Her reclusiveness has become real excess baggage for her in recent months. We all carry excess baggage with us as we go through life, but learning how to deal with those fears and insecurities is how we grow as people.

See also: baggage, excess

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

bag and baggage

 and part and parcel

with one's luggage; with all one's possessions. Sally showed up at our door bag and baggage one Sunday morning. All right, if you won't pay the rent, out with you, bag and baggage! Get all your stuff—part and parcel—out of here!

See also: and, bag, baggage

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

bag and baggage

All of one's belongings, especially with reference to departing with them; completely, totally. For example, The day he quit his job, John walked out, bag and baggage. Originating in the 1400s, this phrase at first meant an army's property, and to march off bag and baggage meant that the departing army was not leaving anything behind for the enemy's use. By the late 1500s, it had been transferred to other belongings.

See also: and, bag, baggage

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bag and baggage

with all your belongings.

See also: and, bag, baggage

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

ˌbag and ˈbaggage

with all your belongings: If you don’t pay the rent, you’ll be thrown out, bag and baggage.

See also: and, bag, baggage

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

bag and baggage

1. With all one's belongings.

2. To a complete degree; entirely.

See also: and, bag, baggage

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bag and baggage

All one’s belongings, usually in the sense of departing with them. It originally was a military phrase that meant all of an army’s property and was so used in the fifteenth century. To march away with bag and baggage meant that the army was leaving but was surrendering nothing to the enemy. The alliterative nature of the term has appealed to many writers, including Shakespeare. In As You Like It Touchstone says, “Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage,” meaning the purse and its contents (money). In time the connotation of honorable departure was dropped and the term simply described clearing out completely. “‘Bag and baggage,’ said she, ‘I’m glad you’re going,’” declared Samuel Richardson’s heroine in Pamela (1741). See also kit and caboodle.

See also: and, bag, baggage

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer