vagrant
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
Etymology: From Late Middle English vagraunt (“person without proper employment; person without a fixed abode, tramp, vagabond”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) [and other forms] and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”) [and other forms], perhaps influenced by Latin vagārī, the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, stroll about; to roam, rove, wander”). Old French walcrant is the present participle of vagrer, wacrer, walcrer (“to wander, wander about as a vagabond”) [and other forms], from Frankish *walkrōn (“to wander about”), the frequentative form of *walkōn (“to walk; to wander; to stomp, trample; to full (make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing)”), from Proto-Germanic *walkōną (“to roll about, wallow; to full”), *walkaną (“to turn, wind; to toss; to roll, roll about; to wend; to walk; to wander; to trample; to full”),
from Proto-Indo-European *walg-, *walk-, *welgʰ-, *welk-, *wolg- (“to turn, twist; to move”), ultimately from *welH- (“to turn; to wind”).
The English word is cognate with Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Middle Dutch walken (“to knead; to full”), Old English wealcan (“to roll”), ġewealcan (“to go; to walk about”), Old High German walchan, walkan (“to move up and down; to press together; to full; to walk; to wander”), Old Norse valka (“to wander”). See further at walk.
Inflected forms:
form: vagrants
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: more vagrant
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most vagrant
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
pos: noun
tags: dated
gloss: A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
pos: noun
tags: specifically
examples: Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighbourhood begging for food.
If it appear to the Juſtice by the confeſſion of the Vagrant, or by the Oath of one Witneſs, that he had no lawful Settlement ſince his Birth, and that he hath committed Acts of Vagrancy, or hath been a common Beggar, or Vagrant, for two Years laſt paſt, [...] then inſtead of puniſhing him, the Juſtice, or Juſtices, may bind him Apprentice for ſeven Years to the Perſon who apprehends him, or to any other Perſon who will receive him, and employ him in Great Britain, or in any of his Majeſty's Plantations.
'Tis the cruel gripe / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amuſed, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundleſs as it is, a crowded coop.
The most prominent body of delinquents in the rural districts are vagrants, and these vagrants appear to consist of two classes: first, the habitual depradators, house-breakers, horse-stealers, and common thieves; secondly, of vagrants, properly so called, who seek alms as mendicants.
Among vagrants are to be found thieves of every description, as well as a numerous host of the rankest impostors. [...] A great number amongst these daring impostors have been brought up vagrants from their infancy, and such as are bred up to it are naturally the most clever in acts of thieving, or in imposing upon the public.
gloss: Any of species Vagrans egista of widely distributed Asian butteflies of the family Nymphalidae.
pos: noun
gloss: An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.
pos: noun
tags: especially
gloss: Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
pos: adj
examples: a vagrant beggar
[A]ll and every idle, looſe and diſſolute perſon and perſons, which from and after the firſt day of July, One thouſand ſix hundred fifty ſeven, ſhall be found and taken within the Commonwealth of England, vagrant and wandring from his or their uſual place of living or abode, and ſhall not have ſuch good and ſufficient cauſe or buſineſs for ſuch his or their travelling or wandring, [...] ſhall be proceeded againſt and puniſhed as Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggers within the ſaid Statute, [...]
gloss: Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
pos: adj
gloss: Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: Let Prudence yet obſtruct thy venturous way; / And take good heed, what men will think and ſay: / That beauteous Emma vagrant courſes took; / Her father's houſe and civil life forſook; / That, full of youthful blood, and fond of man; / She to the wood-land with an exile ran.
While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.
I'll ply the fire with kindling / And pull the blankets to my chin / I'll lock the vagrant winter out / And I'll bolt my wandering in
Related words: vagary
vagation
Derived words: vagrance
vagrancy
vagrantism
vagrantize
vagrantly
vagrantness
vagrom
Translations: