Handbag

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈhændbæɡ/

Origin

hand + bag. The music genre is named from women dancing around a pile of their handbags in nightclubs.

Full definition of handbag

Noun

1. (British and Canada) A small bag used by women (or sometimes by men) for carrying various small personal items.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.
2. (uncountable) An anthemic subgenre of house music of the late 1980s, often with booming vocals.

Synonyms

• (bag used by women) purse North American
• (subgenre of house music) diva house, handbag house

Hyponyms

• man-bag, murse

Derived terms

• hardbag
• man-bag

Verb

1. (British, transitive, humorous) Figuratively, to hit with a handbag; to attack verbally or subject to criticism (used originally of Margaret Thatcher).