black-bag
English
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black-bag
Where it comes from
From the term black bag meaning a case containing burglary tools. Sense 2 refers to the practice of blindfolding a detainee with a bag or sack.
adjective black bag · blackbag
- Involving sophisticated clandestine methods for gaining unauthorized entry and obtaining information. Watergate turned out to be a black-bag operation by former CIA employees.
verb black-bags · black-bagging · black-bagged · black bag · blackbag
- To break in to a place without authorization as part of a clandestine operation. He'd been tapped, bugged, and black-bagged under Nixon and Clinton, and under the present conditions all the cops needed to listen in was a thumbs-up from an Eagle Scout or better.
- To kidnap in order to make someone disappear (as opposed to kidnapping for ransom). When witches and demons caused enough trouble, the Union had a tendency to black-bag the baddies and toss them into a detention center.
Talk about this word "black-bag." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/black-bag. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. black-bag. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/black-bag "black-bag." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/black-bag.Cite this
@misc{black_bag_2026,
title = {black-bag},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/black-bag},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
