va·grant
(v
gr
nt)
KEY
NOUN:
- One who wanders from place to place without a permanent home or a means of livelihood.
- A wanderer; a rover.
- One who lives on the streets and constitutes a public nuisance.
ADJECTIVE:
- Wandering from place to place and lacking any means of support.
- Wayward; unrestrained:
a vagrant impulse.
- Moving in a random fashion; not fixed in place:
"Thanks to a vagrant current of the Gulf Stream, a stretch of the Kola coast is free of ice year round"
(Jack Beatty).
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English
vagraunt, probably alteration of Old French
wacrant, present participle of
wacrer,
to wander,
of Germanic origin
OTHER FORMS:
vagrant·ly
(Adverb)
