vagrant

/ˈveɪgrənt/

/ˈveɪgrɪnt/

Other forms: vagrants; vagrantly

A vagrant is someone who is homeless and poor and may wander from place to place. In fiction a vagrant often is a criminal, but a real-life vagrant might just be a person who has lost a job and family and lives off the streets with help from charity.

Many synonyms for vagrant imply laziness and criminal behavior, such as "bum," "tramp," and "vagabond," and some vagrants do make money through crime. Often, though, a vagrant is a down-on-his-luck person who has lost work, family, or health and lives on the streets. European roots for vagrant point to "wander" or "wander about," and a vagrant is a wanderer — a man or woman without a place to call home.

Definitions of vagrant

1. noun

   a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support
   synonyms: drifter, floater, vagabond

   types:

   beachcomber

   a vagrant living on a beach

   sundowner

   a tramp who habitually arrives at sundown

   bum, hobo, tramp

   a disreputable vagrant

   dosser, street person

   someone who sleeps in any convenient place

   type 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
2. adjective

   continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
   “vagrant hippies of the sixties”

   synonyms: aimless, drifting, floating, vagabond

   unsettled

   not settled or established