vagabond
vagabond Lexical Profile
vagabond Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home or regular employment.
"After graduating, he spent two years as a vagabond, backpacking across Europe and taking odd jobs."
An idle, disreputable, or worthless person; a rascal.
"In the Victorian novel, the strict magistrate dismissed the accused man as a shiftless vagabond."
• adjective
Having no settled home; wandering from place to place or leading a nomadic lifestyle.
"The folk singer embraced a vagabond existence, performing in small cafes across the country."
• verb
To wander or travel about with no fixed destination or permanent home.
"They vagabonded through South America for six months with little more than a tent and two backpacks."
Word Nuance & Usage
While historically pejorative and associated with vagrancy or disreputable behavior, "vagabond" is now frequently used in a romanticized sense to describe a free-spirited traveler.
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 14th century from Old French vagabond, from Late Latin vagabundus ('wandering, strolling about'), derived from Latin vagari ('to wander').