carpetbagger

carpetbagger
   a seeker of short-term gain
   Originally, an absconding American banker, who so carried away the bank's reserves when he left. Then widely used of Northerners who sought easy pickings in the South after the Civil War. In modern use it refers to a tout who seeks to put together a deal without any personal investment or risk, as by seeking a buyer for a property which does not belong to him. The verb is rare:
    Only then he is not on the take, he is not carpetbagging his country's inheritance, (le Carré, 1996)
   The term is also used in Britain of those who place small deposits with mutual building societies, in the hope of profit if the societies abandon their mutual status; and of politicians seeking a safer constituency.

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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  • Carpetbagger — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Caricatura donde el KKK amenaza con linchar a los Carpetbaggers, en Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868 El término carpetbagger nació en los Estados Unidos en el siglo XIX, como una denominación política… …   Wikipedia Español

  • carpetbagger — car‧pet‧bag‧ger [ˈkɑːptˌbægə ǁ ˈkɑːrptˌbægər] noun [countable] informal disapproving 1. FINANCE an investor who puts their money into a life insurance or a building hoping that it will …   Financial and business terms

  • carpetbagger — A carpetbagger is an opportunist without any scruples or ethics, or a politican who wants to represent a place they have no connection with …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • Carpetbagger — Car pet*bag ger, n. An adventurer; a term of contempt for a Northern man seeking private gain or political advancement in the southern part of the United States after the Civil War (1865). [U. S.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • carpetbagger — ● carpetbagger nom masculin (américain carpetbag, sac de voyage) Sobriquet donné par les sudistes aux aventuriers blancs venus dans le Sud, après la guerre de Sécession …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Carpetbagger —   [ kɑːpɪtbægə, englisch; zu carpetbag »Reisetasche«] der, s/ s, in den USA Bezeichnung für die Ämterjäger und Politiker der Republikanischen Partei, die nach dem Sezessionskrieg aus dem Norden in die besetzten Südstaaten kamen, um sich zu… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • carpetbagger — (n.) 1868, American English, scornful appellation for Northerners who went South after the fall of the CSA seeking private gain or political advancement. The name is based on the image of men arriving with all their worldly goods in a big… …   Etymology dictionary

  • carpetbagger — ► NOUN derogatory, chiefly N. Amer. 1) a politician who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections. 2) an unscrupulous opportunist …   English terms dictionary

  • carpetbagger — ☆ carpetbagger [kär′pətbag΄ər ] n. 1. any of the Northern politicians or adventurers who went South to take advantage of unsettled conditions after the Civil War: contemptuous term with reference to the luggage they used in traveling light 2. any …   English World dictionary

  • Carpetbagger — In United States history, carpetbaggers was the term southerners gave to northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, between 1865 and 1877. They formed a coalition with freedmen (freed slaves), and scalawags (southern whites who… …   Wikipedia

  • Carpetbagger — Caricature du sénateur Carl Schurz en carpetbagger par Thomas Nast …   Wikipédia en Français

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