| / English Dictionary |
VAGABOND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place
Example:
pirate ships were vagabonds of the sea
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
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
Synonyms:
clochard; drifter; floater; vagabond; vagrant
Classified under:
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)
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)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
Example:
vagrant hippies of the sixties
Synonyms:
aimless; drifting; floating; vagabond; vagrant
Classified under:
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)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Wandering aimlessly without ties to a place or community
Example:
a rootless wanderer
Synonyms:
rootless; vagabond
Classified under:
Similar:
unsettled (not settled or established)
Derivation:
vagabond (anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
Example:
They rolled from town to town
Synonyms:
cast; drift; ramble; range; roam; roll; rove; stray; swan; tramp; vagabond; wander
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
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 is enough that I place this boy under the eye of a friend of my own, in a respectable business; that it does not please him; that he runs away from it; makes himself a common vagabond about the country; and comes here, in rags, to appeal to you, Miss Trotwood.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He now flew into a very great passion, and, suspecting the company who had come in the night before, he went to look after them, but they were all off; so he swore that he never again would take in such a troop of vagabonds, who ate a great deal, paid no reckoning, and gave him nothing for his trouble but their apish tricks.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
As he walked up and down that part of the courtyard which was at the side of the house, with the stray rooks and jackdaws looking after him with their heads cocked slyly, as if they knew how much more knowing they were in worldly affairs than he, if any sort of vagabond could only get near enough to his creaking shoes to attract his attention to one sentence of a tale of distress, that vagabond was made for the next two days.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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