Matilda

Origin

Unknown.

Alternative forms

• Matilda

Full definition of matilda

Noun

1. (Australia) A bundle of possessions, often tied up in a sack; a swag.
• 1906, Banjo Paterson, On The Road to Gundagai, The Old Bush Songs, Gutenberg eBook #10493,In a week the spree was over and the cheque was all knocked down,
  So we shouldered our “Matildas,” and we turned our backs on town,
  And the girls they stood a nobbler as we sadly said “Good bye,”
  And we tramped from Lazy Harry’s, not five miles from Gundagai;
• 1999, Milton Finkelstein, Global geography,When a hobo roams through the outback with a matilda on his back, he is said to be “waltzing matilda.”

Derived terms

• waltz Matilda