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.
2.
Floating about without any certain direction; driven to and fro.
To heaven their prayers
Flew up, nor missed the way, by envious winds
Blown vagabond or frustrate.
Milton.
3.
Being a vagabond; strolling and idle or vicious.
© Webster 1913.
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.
A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be.
Gen. iv. 12.
⇒ 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.
© Webster 1913.
Vag"a*bond, v. i.
To play the vagabond; to wander like a vagabond; to stroll.
On every part my vagabonding sight
Did cast, and drown mine eyes in sweet delight.
Drummond.
© Webster 1913.