FreeScrabbleDictionary

vagrant

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
11
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈveɪɡɹənt/

Definition of vagrant

7 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (dated)A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
See all 7 definitions

noun

  1. (dated)A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
  2. (specifically)A person without settled employment or habitation who usually supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means; a tramp, a vagabond.
    “Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighbourhood begging for food.”
    “'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.”
  3. Any of species Vagrans egista of widely distributed Asian butteflies of the family Nymphalidae.
  4. (especially)An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.

adj

  1. Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
    “a vagrant beggar”
  2. Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
  3. (figuratively)Moving without a certain direction; roving, wandering; also, erratic, unsettled.
    “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”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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…

See full 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.

Words you can make from vagrant

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