Brown bag
(PW) bring one’s lunch from home
For the meeting on Friday, we’ve all decided to brown bag it.
(MW)
1 : the practice of carrying (as to work) one's lunch usually in a brown paper bag
2 : the practice of carrying a bottle of liquor into a restaurant or club where setups are available
(free)
brown bag US
n
a bag made of brown paper, often used for carrying a packed lunch or alcohol
vb brown-bag -bags, -bagging, -bagged (intr)
1. to take a packed lunch in a brown bag
2. to carry alcohol in a brown bag
(phraserFinder)
: : : : : : : : : : I'm pretty sure it's a business meeting where every one brings his or her own lunch in a paper bag, as opposed to a meeeting where the company provides the meal.
: : : : : : : : : Yes, that's what it means.
: : : : : : : : I'd stretch it a little wider. If you bring in lunch (in the requisite brown bag) to eat at your desk (versus going out to a fast-food eating trough) that's a brown-bag lunch, too. ("We're going for pizza. Coming?" "No, I'm brown-bagging it today..")
: : : : : : : Upon further reflection, the real distinction is that the lunch is made at home. If you were to go out to a sandwich shop and bring back food to eat while working, that would Not be a BBL, even if it came in a brown bag.
: : : : : : I'm glad this all got clarified. To (brown) bag in the UK might well be taken to refer to what responsible dog owners do. In any event, in my experience there seems to be a far greater usage of the brown paper bag generally in the US, whether in food stores for packing bought goods, or whether as the traditional carrying means for a home-made sandwich or any take-out snack - you just don't see that over here in the UK unless you've been to McDonalds, and no, I don't know why.
: : : : : I don't know what a poop-scoop bag is called. A "doggy bag" in the U.S. is when you ask the waiter/waitress to put part of your meal in a container to take home. In theory it's suppose to be for the dog. But usually it's for the humans to eat as leftovers.
: : : : The poop-scoop bag? I've always heard it called a pooper scooper. I have to admit, brown bagging does have a better ring to it than "pooper scooping". However, given the meaning that brown bagging already has in the US, I don't think it will catch in this sense.
: : : I coined a phrase. A "poop-scoop bag" would hold the contents of the pooper-scooper.
: : Wouldn't this be better termed a "scooped-poop bag"?
: Re: Doggy-bag. Nobody really uses that phrase anymore since (you're right) most people savor the leftovers for themselves. Generally it's now "Wrap this for me". Or "Can we have this wrapped"?
That varies regionally. In my part of the U.S., we say "We'd like to take this home" or "Could we have a container for the _____?" In Chinese restaurants where the staff's English is limited, the server might indicate the platter and say "To go?"
