Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Used as a disparaging term for a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child's birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother's or other relatives' chances of securing eventual citizenship.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US, offensive a child born to
immigrant ornoncitizen parents in the United States or another country that grants birthright citizenship, who, as a citizen, is said to grant immigration benefits to relatives.
Etymologies
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Examples
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whichbe commented on the word anchor baby
A child born of an immigrant in the United States, said to be a device by which a family can find legal foothold in the US, since those children are automatically allowed to choose American citizenship. (From Double-Tongued Dictionay)
June 9, 2008