vagabondage
(ˈvægəbɒndɪdʒ)
[f. vagabond n. + -age, or a. F. vagabondage (1798).]
1. The state, condition, or character of a vagabond; life or conduct characteristic of or resembling that of a vagabond; idle or unconventional wandering or travelling; vagabondism.
| 1813 [implied in vagabondager: see below]. 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 336 That love of..bird's-nesting and vagabondage, which..is inherent in all boys. 1858 Times 4 Nov. 6/2 [The Ionians] have been elevated from the lowest grade of Mediterranean vagabondage. 1871 Holme Lee Miss Barrington I. vii. 102 Spring arrived and he grew restless again and betook himself to vagabondage and the streets. |
| fig. 1863 Lecky in Mem. (1909) II. 34, I have been indulging in an enormous amount of literary vagabondage. 1871 M. E. Braddon Lovels xxii. 171 Her random sketches—some of them mere vagabondage of the pencil, jotted down half unconsciously. |
2. Vagabonds collectively; persons of a vagabond class or order.
| 1855 [J. D. Burn] Autobiogr. Beggar Boy (1859) 137 One of the immediate consequences of their conduct would be, to let loose the whole vagabondage of the country. 1903 Times 14 Feb. 11/5 They are already bringing a good deal of rural vagabondage to London. |
Hence
vagaˈbondager, one who practises vagabondage.
| 1813 Sir R. Wilson Priv. Diary (1862) II. 52 At midnight I entered my carriage, and found myself in solitude with a cheerless imagination... Thus vagabondagers pay for their temporary pleasures. |