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

  • “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!”

    The Abbot

  • 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.

    Lorna Doone

  • 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.

    Mary Anerley

  • If there were real reason for apprehension he would follow the runagate to the Continent, but he would not do this without absolute knowledge.

    Framley Parsonage

  • 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?

    Lorna Doone

  • 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.

    The Holy War

Note

The word 'runagate' comes from a Latin word meaning 'traitor, renegade'.