tramps

Noun

tramp (plural tramps)

1. The act of walking with heavy steps.
   • My dear sirs, did you actually imagine that one could not follow every clumsy move you made, with Joolby's low comedy tramp and the other two stealing in like a couple of hired assassins in a penny gaff melodrama?1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
2. (derogatory, sometimes) A homeless person; a vagabond.
   • [S]he had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III...

   Synonyms:

   bum, hobo, vagabond, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer

3. (derogatory) A disreputable, promiscuous woman; a slut.
   • I can't believe you'd let yourself be seen with that tramp.

   Synonyms:

   NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise., 304, alley cat, alleycat, amorette, amoret, amorosa, article, Athanasian wench, blowsabella

4. Any ship which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call.
   • I was so happy on board that ship, I could not have believed it possible. We had the beastliest weather, and many discomforts; but the mere fact of its being a tramp-ship gave us many comforts; we could cut about with the men and officers, stay in the wheel-house, discuss all manner of things, and...1888, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson; Volume 2, chapter 9
5. (Australia, New Zealand) A long walk, possibly of more than one day, in a scenic or wilderness area.
   • I got in with the American Fur Company and set out for another tramp to trade with the Indians on the North and South Platte Rivers.1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 40

   Synonyms:

   bushwalk, hike, ramble, trek

6. Of objects, stray, intrusive and unwanted.
   • Your last delivery of copper ore contained half a hundredweight of tramp metal.2015 September 29 (last accessed), Mining Magazine, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016

See all 16 meanings of tramp