How to Use vagrancy in a Sentence

vagrancy

noun
  • Fencing added in the past year has discouraged some vagrancy.
    — Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 29 Sep. 2025
  • 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
  • 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
  • Vagrancy laws can’t be strictly enforced as long as the city fails to provide sufficient housing.
    — Dan McSwain, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 June 2017
  • And like most vagrancy laws more broadly, anti-loitering laws were race-neutral on paper.
    — Bonnie Kristian, TheWeek, 7 May 2020
  • 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
  • So a magistrate dismissed the charges but sentenced both Black men to 90 days in the workhouse for vagrancy.
    — Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
  • 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
  • Changes in extreme weather and navigation errors can result in vagrancy.
    — Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • He was eventually convicted of misdemeanor vagrancy and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
    — Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 5 Feb. 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
  • 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
  • Most residents consider crime and vagrancy bigger public threats than billionaires.
    — Allysia Finley, WSJ, 3 June 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
  • Both states punished people who returned after being removed for violating vagrancy laws by public whipping.
    — Time, 16 Sep. 2025
  • 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
  • Desperate to mitigate the scourge of vagrancy, Californians last fall approved $6 billion in state bonds for housing.
    — Allysia Finley, WSJ, 28 June 2019
  • 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
  • The real public nuisances in these progressive sanctuaries are vagrancy, public urination and open drug use that are all increasingly common.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 8 June 2018
  • 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
  • Pennsylvania passed vagrancy laws in the 19th century as a way to regulate and police formerly enslaved Black people in the state.
    — Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The Market Street properties are currently subject to frequent vagrancy and vandalism.
    — Matthew Geiger, Denver Post, 25 Apr. 2026
  • 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
  • Other business owners have raised similar concerns of harassment, saying the neighborhood has been overrun by an open-air drug market polluted with violence and vagrancy.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 22 July 2022
  • The expansive definitions of vagrancy, and the discretionary power that vagrancy laws conferred upon law enforcement officers as a result, date back to the colonial era.
    — Time, 16 Sep. 2025
  • The rise in vagrancy, open drug use, aggressive panhandling, indecent exposure and public health hazards have made downtown residents feel increasingly unsafe in their own city.
    — Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Now, incidents like these occur far too frequently for some, who believe vagrancy and crime from surrounding neighborhoods is beginning to creep into Wedgwood Square.
    — Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Feb. 2026

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.

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