vagabond

Definitions

1. 1.Floating about without any certain direction; driven to and fro. To heaven their prayers Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds Blown vagabond or frustrate. Milton.
2. 2.Being a vagabond; strolling and idle or vicious.
3. 3.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. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be. Gen. iv.
4. 4.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.
5. 5.To play the vagabond; to wander like a vagabond; to stroll. On every part my vagabonding sight Did cast, and drown mine eyes in sweet delight. Drummond.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

• What does "vagabond" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is vagabond.

• What is floating about without any certain direction; driven to and fro. To heaven their prayers Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds Blown vagabond or frustrate. Milton called?
• What is being a vagabond; strolling and idle or vicious called?
• What is to play the vagabond; to wander like a vagabond; to stroll. On every part my vagabonding sight Did cast, and drown mine eyes in sweet delight. Drummond called?