runagate

American  

[ruhn-uh-geyt] / ˈrʌn əˌgeɪt /

noun

1. a fugitive or runaway.

2. a vagabond or wanderer.

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runagate British  

/ ˈrʌnəˌɡeɪt /

noun

1. archaic

   1. a vagabond, fugitive, or renegade

   2. ( as modifier )

      a runagate priest

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Etymology

Origin of runagate

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

Example Sentences

His great-great-great-grandfather Scipio, a runaway slave, intended to escape from Kentucky alone but wound up trying to help another runagate, a pregnant woman named Abby, cross the Ohio River.

From The New Yorker • May 9, 2016

Westward, the sun shone on a redhaired, eel-hipped runagate, Grange by name.

From Time Magazine Archive

A reformed runagate finds happiness once more by his wife's side; a mixed chorus softly hums Make Me a Child Again, Just For Tonight.

From Time Magazine Archive

We must fare on, if ever we are to take that runagate.

From Cedric, the Forester by Marshall, Bernard Gay

"No doubt a sudden impulse of senescent kleptomania," said the superintendent, sagely, when he had noted down for transference to headquarters Madame Dépine's verbose and vociferous description of the traits and garments of the runagate.

From The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes by Zangwill, Israel