| vagabond | 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| vagabond's disease | Excoriations and melanoderma caused by scratching the bites of the body louse, Pediculus corporis. Synonym: Greenhow's disease, vagabond's disease, vagrant's disease. Racial melanoderma, the normally dark skin of blacks and certain other races. Senile melanoderma, cutaneous pigmentation occurring in the aged. Synonym: melasma universale. (05 Mar 2000) |