VAGABOND

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vagabond mean? 

• VAGABOND (noun)
  The noun VAGABOND has 2 senses:

1. anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place

2. a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support

  Familiarity information: VAGABOND used as a noun is rare.

• VAGABOND (adjective)
  The adjective VAGABOND has 2 senses:

1. wandering aimlessly without ties to a place or community

2. continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

  Familiarity information: VAGABOND used as an adjective is rare.

• VAGABOND (verb)
  The verb VAGABOND has 1 sense:

1. move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

  Familiarity information: VAGABOND used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VAGABOND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Context example:

pirate ships were vagabonds of the sea

Hypernyms ("vagabond" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Derivation:

vagabond (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

vagabond (continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another)

vagabond (wandering aimlessly without ties to a place or community)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

clochard; drifter; floater; vagabond; vagrant

Hypernyms ("vagabond" is a kind of...):

have-not; poor person (a person with few or no possessions)

bird of passage; roamer; rover; wanderer (someone who leads a wandering unsettled life)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vagabond"):

beachcomber (a vagrant living on a beach)

sundowner (a tramp who habitually arrives at sundown)

bum; hobo; tramp (a vagrant)

Derivation:

vagabond (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

vagabond (continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another)

• VAGABOND (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wandering aimlessly without ties to a place or community

Synonyms:

rootless; vagabond

Context example:

a rootless wanderer

Similar:

unsettled (not settled or established)

Derivation:

vagabond (anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

Synonyms:

aimless; drifting; floating; vagabond; vagrant

Context example:

vagrant hippies of the sixties

Similar:

unsettled (not settled or established)

Derivation:

vagabond (anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place)

vagabond (a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support)

• VAGABOND (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cast; drift; ramble; range; roam; roll; rove; stray; swan; tramp; vagabond; wander

Context example:

They rolled from town to town

Hypernyms (to "vagabond" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

drift; err; stray (wander from a direct course or at random)

wander (go via an indirect route or at no set pace)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "vagabond"):

maunder (wander aimlessly)

gad; gallivant; jazz around (wander aimlessly in search of pleasure)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

vagabond (anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place)

vagabond (a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support)

vagabondage (travelling about without any clear destination)

 Context examples 

It was very unfortunate that she should marry such a vagabond.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening,” said Mr. Holder.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then he fell upon them with the stick and beat them one after another, crying, “There, you idle vagabonds, you have got what you deserve; are you satisfied now!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I have seen a gipsy vagabond; she has practised in hackneyed fashion the science of palmistry and told me what such people usually tell.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A man might be respected with only one of these advantages, but without either he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

You had better leave me, if you please, to walk the earth as a vagabond.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While this was passing, a duck came quacking up and cried out, You thieving vagabonds, what business have you in my grounds?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a little vagabond.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then he called to the miser, and said, Tell us now, you vagabond, where you got that gold, or I shall play on for your amusement only, I stole it, said the miser in the presence of all the people; I acknowledge that I stole it, and that you earned it fairly.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)