| 释义 |
vagrancy|ˈveɪgrənsɪ|
[f. vagrant a.: see -ancy.]
1. fig. The action or fact of wandering or digressing in mind, opinion, thought, etc.; an instance of this. (Cf. 3.)
1642H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. iii. lxxiii, Curious men will judge't a vagrancy To start thus from my scope. 1778Johnson in Boswell (1831) IV. 176 Of this vacillation and vagrancy of mind, I impute a great part to a fortuitous and unsettled life. 1808H. More Cœlebs II. 200 Poetry..has of late too much degenerated into personal satire,..and caricature;..it has exhibited the vagrancies of genius, without the inspiration. 1853G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 236 We can all of us apprehend the pretty vagrancy of the fancy. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. ii. 291 The workings of conscience helped to check the vagrancies of the heart.
2. The state, condition, or action of roaming abroad or wandering about from place to place.
a1677Barrow Serm. iv. Wks. 1686 III. 42 Therefore did he spend his days in continual labour, in restless travel, in endless vagrancy, going about doing good. Ibid. v. 57 Moses did not lose his affection towards his Countreymen, because he was by one of them threatned away into banishment and vagrancy. 1776Johnson in Boswell (Oxf. ed.) II. 40 As a shepherd..he is answerable for those that stray... But no man can be answerable..for vagrancy which he has not authority to restrain. 1822–56De Quincey Conf. Wks. 1862 I. 131 Happier life I cannot imagine than this vagrancy, if the weather were but tolerable, through endless successions of changing beauty. 1829Lytton Devereux i. i, Before terminating for ever his vagrancies. 1889B. Harte Cressy i, It had been the habit of the master to utilize these preliminary vagrancies of his little flock.
transf.1884Harper's Mag. Dec. 76/2, I was struck by the wild untutored vagrancy of every growing thing.
b. spec. Idle wandering with no settled habitation, occupation, or obvious means of support; conduct, life, or practices characteristic of vagrants or idle beggars.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vagrancy, a vagrant, disorderly, or ill Course of Life. a1792Burke Sk. Negro Code Wks. (Bohn) V. 544 He shall by office prosecute them for the offences of idleness.., gaming, or vagrancy. 1857Toulmin Smith Parish 145 Vagrancy had thus everywhere a colourable excuse given to it, and soon largely increased. 1876J. Weiss Wit, Hum. & Shaks. iv. 141 He ought to be taken up for vagrancy as having no visible means of support.
attrib.1901Scribner's Mag. April 406/1 The sleepy unwary are lucky if they escape the Island on a vagrancy commitment.
3. An instance or occasion of wandering or roaming; a rambling journey; a straying.
1763Ld. Hardwicke in Life (1847) III. xv. 381 The run⁓aways need not shorten their vagrancy on that account. 1799Strutt Dress & Habit II. 318 It was evidently his intention to hold up these idle vagrancies to ridicule. |