vagabond



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:


Vagabond \Vag"a*bond\, v. i.
   To play the vagabond; to wander like a vagabond; to stroll.
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         On every part my vagabonding sight
         Did cast, and drown mine eyes in sweet delight.
                                                  --Drummond.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:


Vagabond \Vag"a*bond\, a. [F., fr. L. vagabundus, from vagari to
   stroll about, from vagus strolling. See Vague.]
   1. Moving from place to place without a settled habitation;
      wandering. "Vagabond exile." --Shak.
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   2. Floating about without any certain direction; driven to
      and fro.
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            To heaven their prayers
            Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds
            Blown vagabond or frustrate.          --Milton.
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   3. Being a vagabond; strolling and idle or vicious.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:


Vagabond \Vag"a*bond\, n.
   One who wanders from place to place, having no fixed
   dwelling, or not abiding in it, and usually without the means
   of honest livelihood; a vagrant; a tramp; hence, a worthless
   person; a rascal.
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         A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be. --Gen. iv. 12.
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   Note: In English and American law, vagabond is used in bad
         sense, denoting one who is without a home; a strolling,
         idle, worthless person. Vagabonds are described in old
         English statutes as "such as wake on the night and
         sleep on the day, and haunt customable taverns and
         alehouses, and routs about; and no man wot from whence
         they came, nor whither they go." In American law, the
         term vagrant is employed in the same sense. Cf Rogue,
         n., 1. --Burrill. --Bouvier.
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