Advertisement

brown-bag

[ broun-bag ]

verb (used with object)

, brown-bagged, brown-bag·ging.
  1. to bring (one's own liquor) to a restaurant or club, especially one that has no liquor license.
  2. to bring (one's lunch) to work or elsewhere, usually in a small brown paper bag.


verb (used without object)

, brown-bagged, brown-bag·ging.
  1. to carry one's lunch in a brown paper bag.

adjective

  1. brought to work, usually in a small brown paper bag:

    a brown-bag lunch.

brown bag

noun

  1. a bag made of brown paper, often used for carrying a packed lunch or alcohol
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


verb

  1. to take a packed lunch in a brown bag
  2. to carry alcohol in a brown bag
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Discover More

Other Words From

  • brown-bagger noun
Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of brown-bag1

First recorded in 1955–60
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. brown-bag it, to bring one's lunch to work or elsewhere, especially in a brown paper bag.
Discover More

Example Sentences

Over the last year I have dined with our Brown Bag Sommelier and he has prepared some tastings for our dining group.

Madame Querterot, having finished her massaging, was repacking the brown bag in which she had brought her apparatus.

Its body has now become as large as a pea; in the attacked skin a large brown bag containing matter is formed.

Mary Louise turned on her flashlight and looked at the small brown bag beside them.

He was carrying a package in a sort of a heavy brown bag, heavier than a grocery bag it looked to me.

The gentleman with the little brown bag stood and looked sharply at me, but with friendly if penetrating eyes.

Advertisement

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


brown-and-servebrown bagger