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Drifter vs Vagrant - What's the difference?

drifter | vagrant | Synonyms |

Vagrant is a synonym of drifter.



As nouns the difference between drifter and vagrant

is that drifter is a person who moves from place to place or job to job while vagrant is a person without a home or job.

As an adjective vagrant is

moving without certain direction; wandering; erratic; unsettled.

drifter

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (pejorative) A person who moves from place to place or job to job.
  • (nautical) A type of lightweight sail used in light winds like a spinnaker.
  • * 1995 , Ken Textor, The New Book of Sail Trim (page 85)
  • In winds above 10 knots we usually run wing-and-wing with our 100 percent lapper set on a whisker pole opposite the mainsail. As the wind drops, we get out the drifter and set it flying to leeward (Fig. 1).
  • * 1999 , Lin Pardey, ?Larry Pardey, Cost Conscious Cruiser: Champagne Cruising on a Beer Budget
  • After trying a variety of light-wind sails, we've found the most versatile and simple one to be a nylon drifter .
  • * 2000 , Jim Howard, ?Charles J. Doane, Handbook of Offshore Cruising (page 178)
  • Some people recommend a medium- to lightweight 140- or 150-percent headsail, and others go for a drifter /reacher.
  • (automotive) A driver who uses driving techniques to modify vehicle traction to cause a vehicle to slide or power slide rather than drive in line with the tires.
  • * 2006 , Paul Morton, How to Drift: The Art of Oversteer (page 32)
  • However, sensing the available traction may actually be more important to a drifter .
  • * 2007 , Calvin Wan, Calvin Wan's Drifting Performance Handbook (page 132)
  • For professional drifters looking for even more fine-tuning of their suspension setups, some companies offer more advanced two-way adjustable shocks
  • * 2009 , Michael Bender, The Fast, the Fraudulent and the Fatal (page 50)
  • While this method is used by a few drifters in rear-wheel drive cars, this technique is really the only way one can drift in a front-wheel drive car.

    vagrant

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person without a home or job.
  • * 2002 , , WIGU: Day two begins
  • Paisley: What smells like dinosaur crap?
    Mother: Your brother wants people to think we’re vagrants .
    Wigu: I stink.
  • A wanderer.
  • Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighborhood begging for food.
  • (ornithology) A bird found outside its species’ usual range.
  • Synonyms

    * beggar * down-and-out * drifter * itinerant * tramp * wanderer * vagabond * See also

    Derived terms

    * vagrancy

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Moving without certain direction; wandering; erratic; unsettled.
  • * Prior
  • That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took.
  • * Macaulay
  • While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.
  • Wandering from place to place without any settled habitation.
  • a vagrant beggar