scatterling en · NOUN
Etymology
From scatter + -ling.
Meanings
-
(obsolete) One who has no fixed residence; a vagabond.
But ah! her fatal vengeance Struck to my heart. A banished scatterling I wandered on the earth.
1839, Benjamin Disraeli, The Tragedy of Count Alarcos, published 1910, page 388:Long time in peace his realm establishd, / Yet oft annoyd with sundry bordragings / Of neighbour Scots, and forrein scatterlings.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 63:He is surrounded by the sound, the sound / Cattle in the marketplace / Scatterlings and orphanages
1986, Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”, in Graceland:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| scatterlings | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Synonyms
rough sleeper · paker · landleaper · hobo · down-and-outer · down-and-out · drifter · skell · landloper · yagger · landlouper · toerag · truant · waif · stiff · gadling · Jack out of doors · skelder · wanderer · pike · vagrant · vagabond · piker · rogue · stumblebum · dero · knight of the road · epithite · derelict · swaggie · swagman · ranger · palliard · scatterling · stroller · floater · clochard · bum · nomad · casual · tramp · rolling stone