vagrant
Syllables: va·grant/ˈveɪɡɹənt/
vagrant noun: a person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
Noun
vagrant (plural vagrants)
- A person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
- 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.
- If it appear to the Juſtice by the confeſſion of the Vagrant, or by the Oath of one Witneſs, that he had no lawful Settlement ſince his Birth, and that he hath committed Acts of Vagrancy, or hath been a common Beggar, or Vagrant, for two Years laſt paſt, [...] then inſtead of puniſhing him, the...1729, W[illiam] Nelson, “Vagrants”, in The Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace: […], 10th edition, [London]: […] E[lizabeth] and R[ichard] Nutt, and R. Gosling, (assigns of Edward Sayer, Esq;)...
- Synonyms:
- drifter, hobo, bum, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer
- Any member of the species Vagrans egista of widely distributed Asian butteflies of the family Nymphalidae.
- An animal, typically a bird, found outside its species' usual range.
Adjective
vagrant (comparative more vagrant, superlative most vagrant)
- Wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation.
- a vagrant beggar
- [A]ll and every idle, looſe and diſſolute perſon and perſons, which from and after the firſt day of July, One thouſand ſix hundred fifty ſeven, ſhall be found and taken within the Commonwealth of England, vagrant and wandring from his or their uſual place of living or abode, and ſhall not have ſuch...1656 September 26, An Act against Vagrants, and VVandring, Idle, Dissolute Persons. At the Parliament Begun at Westminster the 17th Day of September, An. Dom. 1656 [Julian calendar], London: […]...
- Of or pertaining to a vagabond or vagrant, or a person fond of wandering.
- 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.1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. […]”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, →OCLC, page 246
- While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “[Contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica.] Samuel Johnson.”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord...
- Synonyms:
- inconstant, straggling, straying, vagabond, vagrom, vague, wayward
vagrant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
vagrant in Hindi
- person without settled employment or habitation who supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means — see also tramp, vagabond
- आवारा āvārā
- wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation
- आवारा āvārā
vagrant in Tamil
- அலைந்து திரிகின்ற, அலைந்து திரிகிற, சுற்றித் திரிகிற, சுற்றித்திரியும், நாடோடி, திரிநன்
vagrant in Urdu
- person without settled employment or habitation who supports himself or herself by begging or some dishonest means — see also tramp, vagabond
- آوارَہ āvārā
- wandering from place to place, particularly when without any settled employment or habitation
- آوارہ āvārā
vagrant in Bengali
- Vagrans egista
- দাহার dahar
More languagesFewer languages
- vagrant in Malayalam
- അലഞ്ഞുനടക്കുന്നവൻ, അലഞ്ഞുതിരിയുന്നവൻ, നാടുതെണ്ടി, നാടോടി
- vagrant in Kannada
- ಅಲೆಮಾರಿ, ತಿರುಕುಳಿ, ಉಂಡಾಡಿ, ಪೋಲಿ ಪುಂಡ
- vagrant in Punjabi
- ਅਵਾਰਾ avārā
- vagrant in Tagalog
- yagít, laóg
- vagrant in Persian
- سلندر salandar, ویلان veylân, خانهبهدوش xâne-be-duš, ول vel
- vagrant in Thai
- คนจรจัด kon-jɔɔn-jàt, กุ๊ย gúi, จรจัด jɔɔn-jàt
- vagrant in Vietnamese
- la cà, lông bông, lông nhông
Synonyms of vagrant
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of vagrant
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | vagrants |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more vagrant |
| superlative | most vagrant |
Origin of vagrant
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...
From Middle English vagraunt, vagaraunt (“having no proper employment; having a tendency to go astray or wander; wayward”), from Anglo-Norman vagarant, wakerant, waucrant (“vagrant”) and Old French walcrant, waucrant (“roaming, wandering”); see further at etymology 1.
Words formed from vagrant
Words that rhyme with vagrant
Questions about vagrant
- What does vagrant mean?
- Vagrant means a person who wanders from place to place; a nomad, a wanderer.
- What is vagrant in Hindi?
- Vagrant in Hindi is आवारा (āvārā). See Vagrant meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is vagrant?
- Vagrant can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce vagrant?
- Vagrant is pronounced /ˈveɪɡɹənt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of vagrant?
- The plural of vagrant is vagrants.
Words near vagrant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vagrant (page history and authors); vagrant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vagrant (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); vagrant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-vagrant.wav.
Cite this entry: “vagrant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vagrant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.