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welfare queen

noun

Etymology

First appears c. the 1970s, popularized during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign, but not used by Reagan himself.

Definitions

  1. A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need.

    • Miss Taylor, who is 40 years old, has been called Illinois’ “welfare queen” for allegedly defrauding Illinois and other states out of welfare payments while using a number of aliases.
    • Martin isn't a typecast welfare queen sucking the nation dry, as Thomas seemed to suggest, but a single woman like his own mother, who worked low-paying jobs without benefits to support her family and turned to relatives for help.
    • Welfare queens can't hold a candle to corporate kings in raiding the public purse.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for welfare queen. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA