Bags filled with sand used to build barriers or walls, especially during floods, or as weights in weight training or for protecting buildings.
From 'sand' (from Old English 'sand') plus 'bag.' The term became especially prominent during military fortifications and later flood control efforts.
During the 1927 Great Flood, millions of sandbags were used to protect communities—and workers filled them so quickly that the logistics of sandbagging became a studied science for disaster management.
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