1. A Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War for political or financial advantage.
2. An outsider, especially a politician, who presumptuously seeks a position or success in a new locality.

[So called because they carried their belongings in carpetbags.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.