Forms: 5–6 vagabound(e, -bunde, 5–6, 8 -bund, 5–7 -bonde, 7– vagabond; 6 Sc. wagabund, -bond; 7, 9 dial., vagabone, 9 dial. -bon. [a. OF. vagabond (14th c.) or ad. L. vagābund-us, f. vagārī to wander. Cf. mod.F. vagabond, It. vagabondo, Sp. and Pg. vagabundo, vagamundo; also G. vagabund, -bond, Sw. vagabond, Du. vagebond. As a sb. the form finally takes the place of the earlier VACABOND.]
A. adj. 1. Of persons, etc.: Roaming or wandering from place to place without settled habitation or home; leading a wandering life; nomadic.
a. In predicative use.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 16842. O thow blyssed Lady, hyde hem that flen vnto the for helpe, and they that be vagabonde, dyscoure hem nat.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. xii. (S.T.S.), I. 71. Mony of þir pepill vagabound and ouresett with pouerte tuke wagis or þe sabynis.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 322. He staw away … and ȝeid wagabund dissagyssit ane lang quhill.
1838. Stephens, Trav. in Russia, 96/1. Dispersed and vagabond, exiled from their native soil and air, they wander over the face of the earth.
fig. c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 256. My look, myn eyen, unswre and vagabounde.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 16. To Heav’n thir prayers Flew up, nor missd the way, by envious windes Blow’n vagabond or frustrate.
b. In attrib. use (occas. hyphened).
1555. Eden, Decades, I. IX. (Arb.), 97. Owre men suppose them to bee a vagabunde and wanderinge nacion lyke vnto the Scythians.
1602. Mountjoy, Letter, in Moryson Itin. (1617), II. 233. How, as a Vagabond Woodkerne hee may preserve his life,… I know not.
1640. trans. Verdere’s Rom. of Rom., III. 31. I have for my brother and Soveraign, the Prince of Greece, whom but even now I beheld to be a vagabond Girle.
1691. trans. Emiliane’s Observ. Journ. Naples, 226. They become soon weary of it; and then turn Vagabond-Hermits.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 181. A vagabond Debtor may be cited in whatever Place or Jurisdiction he is found.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 559. A vagabond and useless tribe there eat Their miserable meal.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxix. Those ballads which vagabond minstrels sing to drunken churls.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, i. We are a vagabond nation now.
transf. 1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. iv. 45. This common bodie, Like to a Vagabond Flagge vpon the Streame, Goes too, and backe.
1638. Wilkins, New World, xii. (1707), 93. The Concourse of many little Vagabond Stars, by the union of their Beams.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 299. Those vagabond bodies, the comets.
† c. spec. Of soldiers or sailors. Obs.
1748. Lind, Lett. Rel. Navy (1757), ii. 85. If they are to be set at liberty, who are accused of perjury, how is a vagabond seaman to be found, when he comes to England?
1813. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), X. 519. I do not know what measures to take about our vagabond soldiers.
† 2. (See quot. and cf. EXTRAVAGANT a. 2.) Obs.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 258. Ȝit is thare othir lawis callit lawis extravaganis, that is for to say lawis vagaboundis, that ar nocht incorporit in othir bukis of lawis of Lombardy.
3. Inclined to stray or gad about without proper occupation; leading an unsettled, irregular, or disreputable life; good-for-nothing, rascally, worthless.
1630. Greene’s Fr. Bacon, II. i. (Q.2). Where be these vagabond [1594 vacabond] knaues, that they attend no better on their Master?
1682. Burnet, Rights Princes, ii. 66. Some idle vagabond Clarks that had procured themselves to be put in Orders.
1741–3. Wesley, Jrnl. (1749), 9. A clergyman came into the … room, and ask’d aloud, with a tone unusually sharp, ‘Where those vagabond fellows were?’
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., civ. A most vagabond crew!
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 123. He took a ceremonious leave of the Crow chieftain, and his vagabond warriors.
c. 1870. B. Harte, Coyotte, Poems (1886), 16. Lop-eared and large-jointed, but ever alway A thoroughly vagabond outcast in gray.
4. Of or pertaining to, characteristic or distinctive of, a homeless wanderer.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., III. xviii. 104. By suche vagabounde beggerie, they make … beleeue, that they canne foresay and deuine.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. iii. 89. Let them pronounce the steepe Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile,… I would not buy Their mercie.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 40. Voyages by Sea and Land, and a vagabond life.
1698. Crowne, Caligula, IV. Dram. Wks. 1874, IV. 406. Rase from thy memory my sinful hours, And all my little vagabond amours.
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. vi. (1840), 73. Satan being confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 27. They have the true vagabond abhorrence of all useful … employments.
1841. Borrow, Zincali, I. i. 1. 7. Abandoning his vagabond propensities and becoming stationary.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., Introd. 13. This book is well-suited for your migratory needs, and vagabond habits.
5. fig. Roving, straying; not subject to control or restraint.
1635. Quarles, Embl., IV. i. My heart is a vain heart, a vagabond and unstable heart.
1643. Milton, Divorce, Introd. The brood of Belial,… to whom no liberty is pleasing but unbridl’d and vagabond lust without pale or partition.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 455. The Inconstant has a vagabond Soul, without any settled Place of Abode.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, 195. In that house are many mansions, the boisterous sanctuary of a vagabond polytheism.
B. sb. 1. One who has no fixed abode or home, and who wanders about from place to place; spec. one who does this without regular occupation or obvious means of support; an itinerant beggar, idle loafer, or tramp; a vagrant.
α. c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), IV. 653. Now shall all the cursinges of your lawe, Opon yow [i.e., the Jews] fall most myschevose, & be knawen of vagabundes ouer awe.
1496. Ld. Bothwell, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. I. 24. Evere day throw þam þir vagabunds escapis, cummyn to Perkin.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 25. And yeet theese wretched vagabunds hard destenye scourgeth.
β. 1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 2. Every vagabounde, heremyte, or beggar able to labre, or clerk, pilgryme, or shipman.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. xii. (S.T.S.), I. 69. Gif þai suld pas as vagaboundis and vncertane pepill throw þare howsis.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 354. The dogge … defend[s] our houses from theeues, vagaboundes, lewde fellowes.
1594. R. Ashley, trans. Loys le Roy, 60 b. Some of them hauing bin vagabounds and beggers.
1635. Reg. Privy Counc. Scotl., Ser. II. VI. 5. Haveing corrupted all the equipage of the ship, who are bot vagabounds.
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., Vagamundear, to play the vagabound, to strole about.
γ. 1526. Tindale, Acts xvii. 5. The iewes … toke vnto them evyll men wich were vagabondes and gadered a company.
1575. in Maitland Club Misc., I. 120. All wagabondis and idill personis that hes nocht quhairupoun to sustene thame selfis.
1577. Holinshed, Descr. Brit., III. v. 106 b. The third [sort] consisteth of thriftlesse poore, as … the vagabond that will abide no wheres, but runneth vp and downe from place to place (as it were seeking woorke and finding none).
1605. London Prodigal, V. i. For shame, betake you to some honest Trade And liue not thus so like a Vagabond.
a. 1629. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxx. (1641), 94. Such assemblies are … a very randavous of all rogues, and vagabonds.
1684. Burnet, trans. More’s Utopia, 22. If they do this, they are put in Prison as idle Vagabonds.
1736. Gentl. Mag., VI. 718/1. A Bill … for the more effectual punishing Rogues and Vagabonds.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 376. His relations, dishonoured in the public estimation, abandon their home, and become vagabonds.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Three Ages, III. 95. Issuing forth as a vagabond to spread the infection of idleness and vice.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, xviii. We have more vagabonds in the forest than I like.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, II. III. i. 8. He was a stroller and a vagabond, so far as social status went, an idle rogue.
transf. 1602. 2nd Pt. Return Parnass., III. iv. 1352. You grandsyre Phœbus with your louely eye, The firmaments eternall vagabond.
Comb. 1579–80. North, Plutarch (1657), 233. They were loose people and abjects … who vagabondlike wandred up and down the Countrey.
1816. Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, i. (1818), 16. This corps being composed of the most ragged, bare-legged, sans-culotte vagabond-looking wretches.
δ. 1567. Harman (title), A Caueat … for Commen Cursetors Vulgarely called Vagabones.
1602. Narcissus (1893), 124. Wee ar noe vagabones, wee ar no arrant Rogues that doe runne with plaies about the country.
[1842. [see 2 b].]
1901. Trotter, Gall. Gossip, 188. Rogues an vagabons.
b. A nomad. rare.
1756. Nugent, Montesquieu, XX. ii. (1758), II. 3. Hospitality … is found in the most admirable perfection among nations of vagabonds.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 108. They claimed … to be thorough mountaineers, and first-rate hunters—the common boast of these vagabonds of the wilderness.
c. Vagabond’s discoloration, disease, skin (see quots.).
1876. Greenhow, in Trans. Clinical Soc., IX. 46. These cases … have received the special name of ‘Vogt’s Vagabonden-Krankheit,’ which I have rendered into English as ‘Vagabond’s Discoloration’; because this discoloration of skin … is … brought on by long-continued exposure, dirty habits and the irritation of vermin.
1890. F. Taylor, Man. Pract. Med. (1891), 893. The disease has then been called prurigo senilis, and also vagabond’s disease.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 701. The vagabond’s disease, or Morbus errorum of Greenhow. Ibid., 866. Excoriations, wheals and pustules are produced by scratching which, if long continued, may produce a brown, leather-like condition—the so-called vagabond’s skin seen in tramps.
2. A disreputable or worthless person; an idle, good-for-nothing fellow; a rascal or rogue (sometimes without serious implication of bad qualities).
1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 178. I spoke in the mildest Terms imaginable: which nothing mov’d this Vagabond.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, vi. No young vagabond could be brought to bear its contemplation for a moment.
1887. Hall Caine, Son of Hagar, III. iii. I couldn’t be such a vagabond of a husband.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 316. The dishonest, scheming vagabonds!
b. Used as a term of reproof or abuse.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, x. Mind, on your peril, you old vagabone, don’t let them fight that badger without me.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., iv. You were eaves-dropping at that door, you vagabond!
1884. Pae, Eustace, 66. ‘What are you lying there for, you lazy vagabond?’ roared Randolph.
