vagrant
/'veigrənt/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place: A "vagrant" is someone who has no fixed residence and often no visible means of financial support, living a transient lifestyle.
Adjective:
- Wandering from place to place without a settled home or job: Describes a person or life characterized by moving around without a permanent base.
- (Figurative) Moving or behaving in an aimless, erratic, or unpredictable way: Used to describe thoughts, feelings, or things that seem to drift or lack a fixed course.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- The city has programs to provide shelter for vagrants.
- In the 19th century, vagrants were often arrested under vagrancy laws.
Adjective:
- He led a vagrant life, traveling from town to town doing odd jobs.
- A vagrant thought crossed her mind and was quickly forgotten.
Advanced Usage
- Legal/Historical Context: The term "vagrant" has specific legal definitions in many jurisdictions, often relating to laws against vagrancy, which historically criminalized homelessness or unemployment.
- The old law allowed police to arrest any vagrant found on the streets after dark.
Variants and Related Words
- Vagrancy (n): The state or condition of being a vagrant; the act or life of wandering.
- He was charged with vagrancy.
Synonyms
- Noun: Wanderer, drifter, nomad, transient, homeless person, itinerant.
- Adjective: Itinerant, nomadic, peripatetic, rootless, drifting, wandering.
Related Phrases
- Vagrant lifestyle: A way of life characterized by constant moving and lack of permanent home or job.
- He adopted a vagrant lifestyle after leaving his job.
Adjective
- continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
- a drifting double-dealer
- the floating population
- vagrant hippies of the sixties
Noun
- a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support