Definition of "carpetbagger" [car•pet•bag•ger]

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

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One problem for the American claim, is the term carpetbagger, means something else entirely, while in Australia it means only one thing, a steak stuffed with oysters."
• "As a former New Yorker, I hate the fact that this carpetbagger is one of our two senators!!!!!"
• "But the whiff of being a "carpetbagger" - an insulting term for candidates with no local connections who are parachuted into winnable seats - persists."