How to Use vagrancy in a Sentence

vagrancy

noun
Definition of vagrancynext
Synonyms for vagrancynext
  • Freed slaves were accused of crimes such as vagrancy and thrown in prison, where they were forced once again to work without pay.
    — Natalie Hamilton, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Sep. 2020
  • On leaving the store, Adickes was arrested on a charge of vagrancy.
    — Margalit Fox, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Nov. 2022
  • On leaving the store, Ms. Adickes was arrested on a charge of vagrancy.
    — Margalit Fox, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2022
  • But a year or two after both the mall and park opened in 1985, the homeless moved back into the park and the city removed benches, trash cans and the lawn to deter vagrancy.
    — Roger Showley, sandiegouniontribune.com, 28 May 2017
  • The mostly passive Marina District park is a hotspot for vagrancy, drugs and crime, Richter said.
    — Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Feb. 2021
  • While that rarity is due in part to the vagrancy of genetics, the widespread decline of the once-common frog species is also to blame.
    — Eli Francovich, The Seattle Times, 30 Sep. 2019
  • And many cities still have vagrancy laws which allow homeless people to be jailed merely for sleeping on the sidewalk.
    — Brenda Cain, cleveland.com, 13 Dec. 2017
  • The neighborhood concerns run the gamut: Worries about traffic, noise, litter and vagrancy, and fears for the property's fate if Dunkin' were to pull out.
    — John Sharp, AL.com, 10 July 2017
  • Vagrancy laws can’t be strictly enforced as long as the city fails to provide sufficient housing.
    — Dan McSwain, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 June 2017
  • Return to menu In 1892, Congress criminalized cursing in public in the District, lumping it in with the crime of vagrancy.
    — Peter Hermann, Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2023
  • It’s the oldest park in Utah’s capital, with 175 years of history and a reputation in recent decades of being run-down and prone to crime and vagrancy.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 Feb. 2022
  • Austin incentivized vagrancy as a lifestyle choice and did nothing to prepare for the consequences of the policy shift.
    — Matt MacKowiak, National Review, 23 May 2021
  • He was duly arrested, for vagrancy and for attempting to incite a riot, and thrown in jail, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.
    — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
  • The most prevalent crimes were loitering, vagrancy, and drunkenness; which was the result of the many bars located along Main Street in Westminster.
    — Kevin Dayhoff, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The park, which is adjacent to West Harbor Drive and opposite convention hotels, has become a hotspot for crime, drugs and vagrancy, city staffers have said.
    — Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Mar. 2021
  • An itinerant worker who had slept in a barn the night before, Randolph thought the men were attempting to arrest him for trespassing or vagrancy.
    — Clint Smith, The Atlantic, 2 Feb. 2022
  • And like most vagrancy laws more broadly, anti-loitering laws were race-neutral on paper.
    — Bonnie Kristian, TheWeek, 7 May 2020
  • In the fall and not the spring, more birds drifted with the wind, and geomagnetic disturbances were associated with vagrancy.
    — Maddie Bender, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Nov. 2023
  • The Kips Bay Towers complex, currently being renovated, includes a three-acre park that closed to the public in the 1980s when the area experienced a rise in vagrancy and drugs.
    — Julie Lasky, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017
  • His vagrancy, adrift in the chill ruins of a bleak industrial landscape, presents a rootless person without a known identity.
    — Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 24 May 2017
  • According to Politico, this is the highest level of street vagrancy since 2005, when New York City began to measure this phenomenon.
    — Deroy Murdock, National Review, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Many of the city’s urban jewels, like the 16th Street Mall, are being degraded by the opioid epidemic and related vagrancy issues the city still doesn’t have under control.
    — The Denver Post Editorial Board, The Denver Post, 2 June 2017
  • He was eventually convicted of misdemeanor vagrancy and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
    — Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 5 Feb. 2020
  • Never mind that vagrancy laws were a feature of many jurisdictions in the United States both at the time of the founding and afterward, and no court entertained the suggestion that the Eighth Amendment had anything to say about them at all.
    — Nr Editors, National Review, 9 Jan. 2020
  • Changes in extreme weather and navigation errors can result in vagrancy.
    — Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2021
  • The 100-player league has been practicing and playing for years on rundown ballfields ravaged by age, neglect, disrepair, vandalism and vagrancy.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Jan. 2022
  • Hundreds more were lynched based on accusations of robbery, arson, simple assault and vagrancy, the report states; the crimes would not typically have resulted in a death sentence.
    — Leah Asmelash, CNN, 23 Oct. 2019
  • Desperate to mitigate the scourge of vagrancy, Californians last fall approved $6 billion in state bonds for housing.
    — Allysia Finley, WSJ, 28 June 2019
  • Released from custody after serving 90 days for vagrancy, Barton (Milwaukee's Dimonte Henning) is in a hurry to capitalize on the success of his song.
    — Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 11 Mar. 2023
  • Public Works crews removed the 300-pound rocks from Clinton Park Monday, boulders apparently set down by people seeking to deter vagrancy, homelessness and open-air drug dealing there.
    — Dominic Fracassa, SFChronicle.com, 30 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vagrancy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: