1575. Touchstone of Complexions, p. 118. For throughe cruditye and
lacke of perfect concoction in the stomacke is engendered great
abundance of naughty baggage and hurtful phlegme.
1576. Gascoigne, The Steele Glas, p. 79. When brewers put no bagage
in their beere.
Adj. (old).—Used contemptuously of individuals and things. Cf.,
Baggage—a worthless, good-for-nothing woman.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierees Superero, in works (Gresart) II., 273.
Bibbing Nash, baggage Nash, swaddish Nash, rogish Nash, the
bellweather of the scribling flocke.
1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii., 128. For four cellars of wine,
syder, ale, beer, with wood, hay, corn, and the like, stored up for
a year or two, he gave not account of sixpence, but spent it upon
baggage, and loose franions. Ibid., p. 123. Booth himself confest,
in the hearing of those witnesses, that Pregion had nothing to do
with that baggage woman.
Baggage-Smasher, subs. (American).—1. A railway porter. The why and
wherefore of this nickname is abundantly apparent from the following
quotations.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 358. The baggage-smasher, as the
porter is commonly called, handles his burdens with appalling
recklessness, and responsibility there is none.