English

Noun

vagrant ‎(plural vagrants)

1. A person without a home; a wanderer.

   Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighborhood begging for food.‎

   • 1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper [...] To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87:

     '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 amus'd, / 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.

2. (ornithology) A bird found outside its species’ usual range.

Synonyms

• (person without a home or job): beggar, down-and-out, drifter, tramp, vagabond
• (wanderer): wanderer, itinerant
• See also Wikisaurus:vagabond

Derived terms

• vagrancy

Translations

Adjective

vagrant ‎(comparative more vagrant, superlative most vagrant)

1. Moving without certain direction; wandering; erratic; unsettled.
   • Prior

     That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took.

   • Macaulay

     While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.

2. Wandering from place to place without any settled habitation.

   a vagrant beggar

Translations