vagrantva‧grant /ˈveɪɡrənt/ noun [countable] formal 
Word Origin
Word OriginWORD ORIGINvagrant
ExamplesOrigin:
1400-1500 Probably from Old French, present participle of wacrer ‘to roll, wander’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- City authorities are planning a campaign to get an estimated 300,000 vagrants off the streets.
- Our charity provides shelter, meals, and clothing for vagrants.
- The number of vagrants is increasing because of the lack of affordable accommodation for rent in the capital.
- He also made a special study of the outcasts, the waifs and strays of industrial society the vagrants and the idiots.
- I leave the refundable soda-bottle on the bench to make it a little easier for the vagrants.
- The Experience has reinvigorated downtown Las Vegas, for years the habitat of the serious gambler and the serious vagrant.
- Then jealousy and anxiety moved in and squatted like diseased vagrants.
- Today's vagrants, squatting under railway arches and in shop doorways, are not regarded as having strayed from anywhere.
- We vagrants have to seem strong when we may feel weak.
Longman Language Activatorpeople who have no home to live in► the homeless
Collocations · We distribute food and blankets to the homeless on the streets of London.· There aren't enough places in short-stay hostels, so the homeless are reduced to sleeping in cardboard boxes.
► transient American someone who has no home or regular work: · Empty houses attract drug users and transients.· Farther along the street was a transient who was carrying his belongings in a plastic bag.
► bum American informal a person, usually a man, who has no home or regular job and asks people for money on the streets: · A couple of bums were passing a bottle in a doorway.
► bag-lady informal a woman with no home or job who carries all her possessions around with her in a bag: · A bag lady with a shopping cart was picking through the garbage for aluminum cans.
► tramp someone, especially a man, who has no home or job , and who often asks people for money to live: · An old tramp was sleeping under Waterloo Bridge, his coat wrapped tight to keep out the cold.
► vagrant especially written someone who has no home or regular work, and goes from place to place - used especially in legal or official contexts: · Our charity provides shelter, meals, and clothing for vagrants.· The number of vagrants is increasing because of the lack of affordable accommodation for rent in the capital.
someone does not live in one particular place► migrant someone who has travelled from one place or country to another in order to find work: · Many of the city's poorest residents are migrants from rural areas.· 400 migrants won the right to stay in the country yesterday, after a ten-year battle.
► drifter someone who continually travels from one place to another without ever planning where to go next and without ever having a fixed job: · His grandfather was a drifter from New Mexico, who spent half his life brawling and drinking.
► nomad a member of a tribe of people who do not live permanently in one place, but travel around looking for food for their animals, warmer weather etc: · The film follows the nomads as they cross the desert with their camels.
► vagrant also transient American someone who has no job, no home etc and who travels around and sleeps outdoors: · City authorities are planning a campaign to get an estimated 300,000 vagrants off the streets.· The town has never been particularly welcoming to transients.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE► rare
someone who has no home or work, especially someone who begs SYN tramp· A rare transatlantic vagrant, with forewing bluer grey than wing, easily told by conspicuous white crescentic mark in front of eye.