from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Containers for a traveler's belongings.
noun The cases and belongings of a traveler.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun Anything to be carried that is cumbersome and heavy.
noun Baggage; especially, a traveler's baggage.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun That which is lugged; anything cumbrous and heavy to be carried; especially, a traveler's trunks, baggage, etc., or their contents.
noun [Eng.] a vehicle for carrying luggage; a railway car, or compartment of a car, for carrying luggage.
noun the compartment in a train, bus or other vehicle designed for storage of luggage during a journey. Separate from the passenger compartment.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun The bags and other containers that hold a traveller's belongings.
noun The contents of such containers.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun cases used to carry belongings when traveling
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Probably lug + (bag)gage.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
1590s, lug (“drag”) + -age (“(noun)”) – literally “that which is lugged, dragged around”. Duplicate -g- is to clarify pronunciation of the vowel ‘u’ (which is pronounced unchanged from lug). Compare baggage.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word luggage.
Examples
If the customs officer snatches a piece of my luggage, it will in general itself be luggage; if adoring groupies snatch an article of my clothing, it will be clothing; for ˜luggage™ and ˜clothing™ are mass nouns.
The ship has not yet arrived, but will doubtless be here in a few moments, the bad weather having delayed her; and my luggage is all hurried down to the tender, where I should be sent, too, did I not wail with hunger.
I read that packing jewelry in checked luggage is not advisable, although I certainly do not have diamonds, rubies, or anything of the sort in my possession.
Nongjian Tao, an Arizona State University professor who studies the basic properties of graphene, also foresees graphene-based chemical sensors to detect explosives in luggage and volatile organic compounds in the air.
milosrdenstvi commented on the word luggage
At times I use this as a count noun: one luggage, two luggages, etc. This is an idiosyncratic usage.
December 30, 2010
bilby commented on the word luggage
You are not alone. I tender in evidence the 'conductor' on the Eurolines bus service between Verona and Salzburg circa 7 years ago.
December 30, 2010