excess baggage

Definitions

1. 1

   Luggage which exceeds the allowable size or weight (as for an airline flight or train…

   Luggage which exceeds the allowable size or weight (as for an airline flight or train trip), and for which an extra fee must therefore be paid.

   • Watch your weight: Excess baggage is damaging to the wallet. Airlines charge typically from $20 to $30 a kilogram.
2. 2

   Something or someone not needed or not wanted

   Something or someone not needed or not wanted; something or someone of little use or importance; something or someone considered burdensome.

   • Come on, you dog-gone, bullnecked, beetlebrowed, hogjowled, peanutbrained, weaseleyed four flushers, false alarms and excess baggage!
   • Exiles and refugees . . . are likely to find the old ways and old language excess baggage, especially if their adopted homeland is the U.S., where the race is to the swift and the adaptable.
3. 3

   A dubious or unhelpful mental outlook, emotional disposition, or personal history.

   • A chin-whiskered man in Walla-Walla, carrying a line of hope as excess baggage, had grubstaked us.
   • The Pirates entered the season lugging no one's expectations as excess baggage.
   • Every candidate for public office probably has some excess baggage to carry around that he'd rather not have. With Sen. John Kerry, it's undoubtedly his anti-Vietnam War activism.

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