Chiefly Sc. Now rare or Obs. Forms: α. 6–7 vage. β. Sc. 6–7, 9 vaig, 7 uaige. γ. 7– vague. [ad. L. vagārī to wander: cf. F. vaguer, Pg. vagar, It. vagare.] intr. To wander; to range, roam; to ramble idly or as a vagrant.
α. c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. x. (Royal MS.), 3394. Fra land to land … he wes vagand [v.r. wauerande].
1548. Compl. Scotl., xiii. (1872), 111. Quhen metellus hed vagit vp and doune there ane lang tyme.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, 2. Euill disposed persons vage and wander abroad at midnight.
β. 1587. Sc. Acts, Jas. VI., c. 119 ¶ 12. Thay sall remane within this realme … and sall not vaig thairfra.
1647. Aberd. Rec., in Aberd. Jrnl. N. & Q. (1908), I. 16/1. That all persones … heir the word of God, and not vaig nor goe to the old toun.
c. 1657. Sir W. Mure, Ps. cix. 10. Still vaige, and sharke, and beg about, Their bounds lay’d waist, they may.
1802. Leyden, Compl. Scotl., Gloss. 379. To vaig is in common use, as well as stravaig.
γ. 1600. Holland, Livy, XXIII. xlii. 503. To … suppresse these robbers that vague about our country. Ibid., XXXI. xxi. 785. They vagued to and fro in scattering wise up and downe the country a foraging.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 121. Thou idle boy thus vagueing here and there.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., II. xxvi. § iv. (1699), 266. If they were necessitated to vague up and down at all Courts, upon all occasions.
1766. Nichol, Poems, 2. Thus through the country I went vaguing.
1786. in Old Ch. Life Scotl. (1885), 320. The profanation of this holy day by idly vaguing together.
† b. In fig. use. Obs.
1567. Drant, Horace, Ep., B j. Should I goe wryte at Randonne tho, and vage abroade, and raue?
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 289. [He] louset a brydle to thame to vaig in quhat lust or leicherie lyket thame best.
a. 1614. J. Melvill, Diary (Wodrow Soc.), 445. The King sould be judge if a Minister vag from his text.
1641. R. B. K., Par. Liturgy w. Mass-bk., etc., 39. In these conceats all of them agree to vage.
