Meaning of swagman | Babel Free

Definitions

1. 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.
   Australia, New-Zealand, historical
2. A person who sells or trades in trinkets or items of low value.
   British, archaic
3. A middleman who buys and sells stolen goods; a fence.
   US, slang

Equivalents

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.”

“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"; [...]”

“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.”

CEFR level