runagate

[ruhn-uh-geyt]

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noun

a fugitive or runaway.

a vagabond or wanderer.

Origin of runagate

1520–30; run (v.) + obsolete agate away; sense influenced by obsolete renegate (Middle English renegat < Medieval Latin renegātus renegade)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for runagate

absconder, apostate, deserter, rat, recreant, renegade, runaway, sellout, tergiversator, turncoat, reneger

Examples from the Web for runagate

Historical Examples of runagate

The sight of Hamish at a carriage-door guided her to her runagate son.
The Channings
Mrs. Henry Wood
The wife of Cosimo d'Anguissola a runagate with her husband's cousin?
The Strolling Saint
Raphael Sabatini
The Syrian runagate: perhaps I'm writing for nothing in trusting my letter to him.
Introduction to Robert Browning
Hiram Corson
Osberne stood up and said: "What hast thou been about, runagate?"
The Sundering Flood
William Morris
"Nay, no runagate; he goes too slow ever to run," said Don Jordy.
The White Plumes of Navarre
Samuel Rutherford Crockett

British Dictionary definitions for runagate

runagate

noun

archaic

a vagabond, fugitive, or renegade
(as modifier)a runagate priest

Word Origin for runagate

C16: variant (influenced by run) of renegade

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012