runagate
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- noun A renegade or deserter.
- noun A vagabond.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- adjective Renegade; apostate.
- adjective Wandering about; vagabond.
- noun A renegade; an apostate; hence, more broadly, one who deserts any cause; a turncoat.
- noun One who runs away; a fugitive; a runaway.
- noun A runabout; a vagabond; a wanderer.
Examples
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“Fire upon him!” said the Lady of Lochleven; “if there be here a true servant of his father, let him shoot the runagate dead, and let the lake cover our shame!”
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But when my poor mother heard that I was committed, by word of honour, to a wild-goose chase, among the rebels, after that runagate Tom Faggus, she simply stared, and would not believe it.
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Without free trade — in its sweeter and more innocent maidenhood of smuggling — there never could have been on board that English ship the Victory, a man, unless he were a runagate, with a mind of such laxity as to understand French.
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If there were real reason for apprehension he would follow the runagate to the Continent, but he would not do this without absolute knowledge.
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Lorna might be discovered, or at any rate heard of, before the end of this campaign; if campaign it could be called of a man who went to fight nobody, only to redeem a runagate?
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Item, he showed also that my Lord Willbewill was turned a very rebel and runagate, and that so was one Mr. Mind, his clerk; and that they two did range and revel it all the town over, and teach the wicked ones their ways.
Note
The word 'runagate' comes from a Latin word meaning 'traitor, renegade'.