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.