[syn: aimless, drifting, floating, vagabond, vagrant]
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.
[1913 Webster]
On every part my vagabonding sight
Did cast, and drown mine eyes in sweet delight.
--Drummond.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. Floating about without any certain direction; driven to
and fro.
[1913 Webster]
To heaven their prayers
Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Being a vagabond; strolling and idle or vicious.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be. --Gen. iv. 12.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
vagabond
adj 1: wandering aimlessly without ties to a place or community;
"led a vagabond life"; "a rootless wanderer" [syn:
rootless, vagabond]
2: continually changing especially as from one abode or
occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the
floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties" [syn:
aimless, drifting, floating, vagabond, vagrant]
n 1: anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed
place; "pirate ships were vagabonds of the sea"
2: a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means
of support [syn: vagrant, drifter, floater, vagabond]
v 1: move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in
search of food or employment; "The gypsies roamed the
woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The
cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from
one town to the next"; "They rolled from town to town"
[syn: roll, wander, swan, stray, tramp, roam,
cast, ramble, rove, range, drift, vagabond]