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🧑‍🦯 A homeless person 🌬️ Wandering or unsettled
vagrant

vagrant

2 7.5
Moving often from one place or job to another
  • adjective
  • /ˈveɪɡrənt/
translation icon : errante
  • His vagrant nature made it difficult for him to maintain long-term friendships as he often moved away.
  • vagrant breeze
  • vagrant winds
  • vagrant man

Examples

  • The valley steamed beneath a lid of humidity that sealed it off from any vagrant cooling breezes.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Sarah looked entirely proud, and the first stars in the sky brightened some more. A few vagrant scarlet maple leaves tumbled by, and Fred Murchison railed and railed away.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • A vagrant and somewhat disturbing thought just occurred to me.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The uneasy, emotional, and vagrant life that I have led for several years has almost become necessary for me.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The lawn chair skitters in a vagrant breeze.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The hot, enervating night favored projects of vagrant meditation.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Mr. Tunstall's got a soft spot for runaways, derelicts, vagrant types.

    Young Guns (1988)

  • The dim and ominous shapes of buildings seemed to slip in and out of the real world as vagrant light from lampposts filtered through breaks in the swirling gray mist shroud.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The artist's vagrant lifestyle inspired many of his most famous paintings as he traveled from city to city.

  • She led a vagrant existence, constantly searching for the next adventure and never settling down.

Synonyms

nomadic
vsvagrant
22 4.9

People who move from place to place instead of living in one home

covers individuals moving often and also changing occupations, not just group migration
migratory
vsvagrant
1 5.0

People who move to different places to find work at certain times of the year

applies more broadly to continual change not limited to seasonal work
drifting
vsvagrant
3.7

Not staying in one place or job for long

emphasizes steady unsettled change rather than lack of direction
floating
vsvagrant
3.4

Not fixed in one place and often moving

focuses on continual personal change including job shifts rather than mere mobility
vagabond
vsvagrant
7.8

Living from place to place without a fixed home

highlights continuous change including occupations rather than only lacking a home
wandering
vsvagrant
3.9

Moving from place to place rather than living in one place

includes change of jobs or roles as well as movement between places
like a rolling stone
vsvagrant
  • Informal
8.2

A person who moves from place to place, never staying long

is the neutral, general term used for continual change or wandering
vagile
vsvagrant
  • Specialized
9.9

Able to move freely from one place to another

refers to continuous changing and unsettled lifestyle rather than mere mobility

Antonyms

stable
473 2.3

Not likely to change and stays steady over time

settled
2.7

Living in one place and not moving around

How Settled

rooted
3 3.7
settled
2.7
vagrant
2 7.5
rootless
5 6.4
nomadic
22 4.9

Surface Forms

vagrant positive

Morphology

vagrant = vag + ant

Although built from a root meaning 'wander' plus the suffix '-ant', the root 'vag' is not a standalone English word and the formation is not transparently analyzable by an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Vagrant as an adjective comes from the same Latin vagari 'to wander'. That's why calling something 'vagrant' means it is wandering or unsettled, like a vagrant thought or a vagrant job that does not stay in one place.