vagrant

[vey-gruhnt]

noun

1. a person who wanders about idly and has no permanent home or employment; vagabond; tramp.

2. Law.,  an idle person without visible means of support, as a tramp or beggar.

3. a person who wanders from place to place; wanderer; rover.

4. wandering idly without a permanent home or employment; living in vagabondage.

   vagrant beggars.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of a vagrant.

   the vagrant life.

2. wandering or roaming from place to place; nomadic.

3. (of plants) straggling in growth.

4. not fixed or settled, especially in course; moving hither and thither.

   a vagrant leaf blown by the wind.

vagrant

/ ˈveɪɡrənt /

noun

1. a person of no settled abode, income, or job; tramp

2. a migratory animal that is off course

adjective

1. wandering about; nomadic

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of a vagrant or vagabond

3. moving in an erratic fashion, without aim or purpose; wayward

4. (of plants) showing uncontrolled or straggling growth

Other Word Forms

• vagrantly adverb
• vagrantness noun
• nonvagrant adjective
• nonvagrantly adverb
• nonvagrantness noun
• unvagrant adjective
• unvagrantly adverb
• unvagrantness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of vagrant¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English vagaraunt, apparently present participle of unattested Anglo-French vagrer, perhaps from unattested Middle English vagren, blend of vagen (from Latin vagārī “to wander”) and unattested walcren (becoming Old French wa(u)crer ), equivalent to walc- ( walk ) + -r- frequentative suffix + -en infinitive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of vagrant¹

C15: probably from Old French waucrant (from wancrer to roam, of Germanic origin), but also influenced by Old French vagant vagabond, from Latin vagārī to wander

Synonym Study

Vagrant, vagabond describe an idle, disreputable person who lacks a fixed abode. Vagrant suggests a tramp, a person with no settled abode or livelihood, an idle and disorderly person: picked up by police as a vagrant. Vagabond especially emphasizes the idea of worthless living, often by trickery, thieving, or other disreputable means: Actors were once classed with rogues and vagabonds.

Example Sentences

Going back to the 1800s, the city keeps “tramps,” “hobos,” “vagrants” and “winos” off the streets by locking them up in jail or sending them to work at the county “poor farm.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He served four years, but on his release he had no family, friends or place to live, so he became a vagrant.

Read more on BBC

"Romanians go to other countries for work, but we have so many resources here. Wood, grain - and our soil is very rich. Why should we be vagrants in Italy?"

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He plays Tom T. Shiftlet, a one-armed vagrant who talks a woman into taking him on as her handyman, then marries her mute, deaf daughter, Lucynell.

Read more on New York Times

Our caravan had dwindled down to a small band of vagrants.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• itinerant 
• nomadic 
• peripatetic 
• roving 
• wandering 
• wayfaring