Forms: α. 5–6 vagaraunt(e, 6–7 vagarant, 6 -ent. β. 6– vagrant, 7 vag’rant. [Late ME. vagraunt, vagaraunt, perh. an alteration of earlier AF. wakerant (wacrant, walcrant), through association with L. vagārī: cf. VAGABOND. The AF. word is employed in the sense of ‘vagrant’ in enactments of the 14th cent.]
A. sb. 1. One of a class of persons who having no settled home or regular work wander from place to place, and maintain themselves by begging or in some other disreputable or dishonest way; an itinerant beggar, idle loafer, or tramp.
Vagrants have been the subject of many legal enactments, and by the Act 5 Geo. IV., c. 83 (the Vagrancy Act), now in force, they are divided into ‘idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds, incorrigible rogues and other vagrants.’
α. 1444. Rolls of Parlt., V. 113/1. Alle Statutes of Laborers,… Vitaillers, Servauntz and Vagarauntz, afore this tyme made.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 75. They runne roging like vagarents vp and downe the countries like maisterlesse men.
1598. Barkcley, Felic. Man (1631), 378. [Seamen] are alwaies as vagarants and in continuall exile.
β. 1452. in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. IV. 201. All manere vagraunts, vacabunds and beggers begging oute of the hundred wheras they duelle.
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 3 § 6. Yf it shall appear … suche man … to have been a vagraunte and vacabound or ydle parsone.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIV. xci. 367. Lest his Bagpipe, Sheephooke, Skrip, and Bottell … By Vagrants (more then many now) might suffer of their stealth.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 392. These then are Vagrants, while the Husbandman fixes himself in the Villages.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 452. Vagrants who on falsehood live, Skill’d in smooth tales, and artful to deceive.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xvii. (1787), II. 34. The præfect, who seemed to have been designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, 119. The listless or bold expression which characterises vagrants.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 75. For the able-bodied vagrant, it is well known that the old English laws had no mercy.
1884. Pae, Eustace, 37. If you dare to trespass on my grounds … you will be treated as a vagrant or a beggar.
2. One who wanders or roams about; a person who leads a wandering life; a rover.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, xi. Vagrant, go roam and range about the world, and perish as a vagabond on earth!
1718. Pope, Odyss., II. 212. Unnumber’d birds glide through the aerial way, Vagrants of air, and unforeboding stray.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 361. In about five Days Time the three Vagrants, tir’d with Wandring,… came back.
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1771), V. ix. 194. He chose the Israelites, poor vagrants who had not a foot of ground of their own.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., II. 194. Why,… if ages past Led the bold vagrants to so mild a waste,… Why the wild woods for ever must they rove?
fig. 1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus iii. 3. We shal not neede trauell faire to seeke instances of such vagrants out of the wayes of God.
3. A wandering or non-sedentary spider (see first quot.).
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xiii. (1816), I. 423. The former Walckenaer, in his admirable work on spiders, has designated by the name of Vagrants.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., II. xix. 298. There is a very common black and white spider amongst the vagrants.
B. adj. 1. Wandering about without proper means of livelihood; living in vagrancy or idle vagabondage; of or belonging to the class of vagrants or itinerant beggars.
α. 1461. Litt. Red Bk. Bristol (1900), II. 127. Many … of the Kynges liege people … gothe vagaraunt and vnoccupied and may not haue ther labour to ther levyng.
1530. Act 22 Hen. VIII., c. 12 § 2. Yf any suche ympotent person after the sayde Feast of Seynt Iohn, be vagarant & goo abeggyng. Ibid., § 9. Whypped for a vagarant stronge begger.
1608. Bacon, Comment. Sol., I. Wks. 1868, IV. 91. The Indited recusant, the Non Communicant, the vagarant person.
1632. Sanderson, Serm., 383. Sturdy Roagues and vagarant towns-end beggars.
β. 1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 160. In all which places they mustred souldiers,… entertaining also strangers, and other vagrant and masterlesse men.
1641. Brome, Joviall Crew, II. Current and vagrant—Stockant, whippant Beggars!
1722. De Foe, Plague, 122. Every vagrant person may, by the laws of England, be taken up.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 149. His house was known to all the vagrant train.
1814–28. Somerville, Life & Times (1861), 370. Before the general establishment of poor’s-rates, the country was overrun with vagrant beggars.
1854. Act 17 & 18 Vict., c. 74. An Act to render Reformatory and Industrial Schools in Scotland more available for the Benefit of Vagrant Children.
fig. 1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 252. If once Right Reason … be put by its office, our inward house will soon lie … free for every vile and vagrant Opinion to take up and dwell therein.
2. fig. Wandering, straying, roving; inconstant, unsettled, wayward, etc.
1522. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 76/1. It often happeth, yt the very face sheweth ye mind walking a pilgrimage, in such wise yt not withoute som note & reproch of suche vagaraunte mind [etc.].
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus iii. 3. We haue a wandring and vagrant vaine euen after our calling, and therefore much more before.
1651. H. More, Enthus. Tri. (1662), 48. His causality is more vagrant, more lax and general, then to be brought in here.
1684. Burnet, trans. Utopia, 141. They think that if they were not so strictly restrained from all vagrant Appetites, very few would engage in a married state.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 143, ¶ 4. Ambition, Envy, vagrant Desire, or impertinent Mirth will take up our Minds.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. Pref. 26. Men daily, hourly sacrifice the greatest known interest, to … any vagrant inclination.
1755. J. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), I. 116. Pleasure skin-deep and vagrant, pain heart-felt and long-lasting!
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 154. We wander by forest side or fountain,… following our vagrant fancies.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 542. The offspring … of a vagrant and ignoble love.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, I. xxiii. 234. A child … with a violent and vagrant temper.
3. Leading a wandering or nomadic life; ranging or roaming from place to place; straying, straggling. Cf. VAGANT a. 1.
pred. 1546. Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), 201. They shulde here and se lernyng in the sayd college, and not to be vagrant abrode in the sayd towne.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. iii. (Arb.), 22. The people remained in the woods and mountains, vagarant and dispersed like the wild beasts.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 889. [They] became vagrant through most parts of the Romaine Empire.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., lxxxii. Vagrant as a Rout Possest with feare, led by vnskillfull guides.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 232. Ye shall not beg,… Sent with a Pass, and vagrant thro’ the land.
attrib. 1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 90. Fearing his vagrant sonne might grow too potent … he rowses himselfe.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., I. xv. 37. A vagrant Zany, of no certain Manger, Who knew not, ere he din’d, or Friend or Stranger.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxxvii. I amused myself with observing the manners of the vagrant nations.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxv. (1787), II. 532. The vagrant soldiers were recalled to their standard.
1812. J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 68. Without the path of the vagrant savage to guide us.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., x. II. 630. It might well be … that … regents would continue to administer the government in the name of vagrant and mendicant kings.
1860. Hawthorne, Marb. Faun, I. x. 100. They proved to be a vagrant band, such as … all Italy abounds with.
b. Of animals, birds, etc.
1743. Francis, trans. Horace, Odes, IV. iv. 4. To whom the monarch of the gods assign’d Dominion o’er the vagrant, feather’d race.
1767. Phil. Trans., LVII. 396. It becomes a resting place to vagrant birds.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 53. [The goat is] lively, capricious, and vagrant; it is not easily confined to its flock…, and loves to stray remote from the rest.
1817. Wordsw., Vernal Ode, 90. The soft murmur of the vagrant Bee.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 562. In one case two swarms, both of them vagrant swarms, took possession of the same hive.
c. Of plants: Rambling or straggling in growth or habit; straying. Also of hair.
1827. Hood, Mids. Fairies, xlix. And sometimes we enrich gray stems, with twined And vagrant ivy.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., ii. A Farm. The vagrant Vines that wandered Seeking the sunshine, round and round.
1862. Sala, Seven Sons, I. xi. 265. She had … a quantity of vagrant brown hair.
4. Of or belonging to a vagrant or wanderer characterized by, peculiar to, devoted or given up to, vagrancy or wandering.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. M 4 b. Doe you allow of that vagarant ministerie, which is in manie Countries … sprong vp of late, to the discredite of the Gospell of Jesus Christ?
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 490. The worde Turk signifieth Shepheard or one that followeth a vagarant and wilde kinde of life.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 665. The Ethiopians … liued before a vagrant life, like the Nomades of olde.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. lvi. 8. Thou knowest the dayes of my exile, and vagrant condition.
1709. Prior, Henry & Emma, 304. That Beauteous Emma vagrant Courses took; Her Father’s House and civil Life forsook.
1775. Johnson, Lett., 27 May, in Boswell. Because it will be inconvenient to send them after me in my vagrant state. Ibid., Tax. no Tyr. 22. But the age being now past of vagrant excursion.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 212. Persons whose life has been passed in vagrant diplomacy.
1867. Morris, Jason, XIV. 416. Keeping but vagrant life for thine own part of what thou boastest with the Gods to share.
5. Of things: Not fixed or stationary; moving hither and thither; spec. in Path. of certain blood-cells.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., I. i. Ere he march in Asia, or display His vagrant Ensigne in the Persean fields.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 226. Mercurie … is in truth a fugitive vagrant substance.
1743. Francis, trans. Horace, Odes, I. xxvi. 3. Bear them, ye vagrant winds, away. Ibid., xxxiv. 14. The ponderous earth, and vagrant streams.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 417. When we consider the motion of those vagrant worlds, the comets.
1800. Moore, Anacreon, lviii. 10. Then I loose all such clinging cares, And cast them to the vagrant airs.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xv. A vagrant ray of sunlight patching the shade of the tall houses.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat. (ed. 3), 203. The lofty ice mountains that wander like vagrant islands along the coast of America.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 497. The fixed cells of the tissue to a great extent appear to supplant in its office the vagrant leucocyte.
† b. Of a disease or pain: Not local or confined to one particular part. Obs.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 24. Arthritis that is vagrant is Scorbutical, and a pain of divers parts.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., IV. 126. M. N. was suddenly taken with most sharp vagrant pains.
