vag n.1
1. a vagrant.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘The Three Tasks’ Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry I 69: By the powers [...] one of the greatest ould vag – I mane, isn’t he a terrible man, out and out, for a father! | |
| Dublin Obs. 28 June 11/2: A notorious character — the very beau ideal of a city ‘vag’ of the pickpocket tribe. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum 94: vag Vagrant. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: Suppose he does arrest her as a ‘vag,’ is she not entitled to a hearing. | |
 | Chicago Street Gaz. 22 Sept. n.p.: There is a dive on North LaSalle Street, called a wine hall [...] and most any night you can find a congregation of boys, prostitutes, old cats, thieves and vags. | |
| Wichita Eagle (KS) 5 Aug. 5/4: Wm. Gibson was a whisky vag [...] He was put in the cooler. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 91: Vag, a vagrant. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 114: America can almost compete with England in the number of her ‘city vags.’. | |
| ‘The Dip’ In Babel 11: The vag has always got a job and plenty of money. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Feb. 1/1: Twice a week he [i.e. a magistrate] discharges a female vag. on her promising to marry a Mongolian. | |
| Lincoln Daily News 23 Jan. in DN IV:ii 121: [Headline] Vag Gets Pinched when He Hits Cap for Square Meal . | |
| ‘Canada Kid’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 163: I got dough in the kick, so I ain’t no vag. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 72: ‘Who’s the fresh fish, Smiler?’ ‘Another vag.’. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | (ref. to 1920s) Over the Wall 109: I paid my way to [...] Sacramento, tramping into the city after nightfall in the guise of an ordinary ‘vag.’. | |
| Rocky Road to Dublin n.p.: I’m going to have something to say to them vags, that day, that will raise blisters on their conscience . | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 541: There were four of them. That time. All booked as vags. | |
| Restless Men 169: Don’t look like a drunk to me. Vag, maybe. | |
| Stand (1990) 104: I’ve been travelling around but I’m not a vag. | |
| It (1987) 277: Most of the vags Sheriff Sully posted into that chair in the old days would go twice that. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 146: We legged it to skid row, a small part of town with [...] pool rooms, beaneries, drunks and vags. | |
| What Fire Cannot Burn 161: He looked like a vag to me [...] he had on, you know, bumwear. |
2. a charge of vagrancy, also attrib.
| Vocabulum 94: ‘Done on the vag,’ committed for vagrancy. | |
| Criminal Life (Boston) 19 Dec. n.p.: We hope the police will run up these loafers ‘on the vag’. | |
| Vagabond Papers (3rd Ser.) 58: It is commonly reputed that a vagrant gets a heavier sentence than a minor thief. [...] Many young larrikins are brought up ‘on the vag.’ They are known as thieves and bad characters, according to the police, who attempt to rid the neighbourhood of them in this way. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 10/1: After a meeting, in the course of which there was a considerable amount of yuck-yucking the bredren rounded on their pastor, accusing him of having got a month ‘on the vag.’ in Launceston. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 5 Aug. 5/6: He served 12 years, did that old lag, / [...] / Besides three times as ‘on the vag’. | |
| Barkeep Stories 38: ‘[Y]ou won’t scare dat bloke wid nottin,’ widout you got a vag warrant’. | |
| Powers That Prey 256: They’re liable as not to pinch him for a vag. | |
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 164: UNDER THE VAG push and thieves an abbreviation of ‘under the Vagrancy Act,’ a law which the police take advantage by a charge of ‘no visible means of support’ to arrest and detain criminals against whom they have further charges to perfect. | |
| ‘Diogenes’ in Roderick (1972) 692: They were going to get him sent up on the vag, but the young men proved that he had a billet. | |
| Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 69: constable: They’re [his hands] more used to picking pockets than skinning rabbits. / smithy: That’s red hot. You can’t book me for the vag. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 12/3: Murphy, the Victorian Western District P.M., is getting his name up. Here is a slab from reports of the recent doings in Geelong, when one Frazer, a youth of 18, was up ‘on the vag.’. | |
| ‘War’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 26: If I don’t work they’d pinch me on the vag. | |
| ‘Gila Monster Route’ in Hobo 195: They were charged with vag, for they had no kale. | |
| Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 79: When I opened the letter he had given me, I found a ten-dollar bill and a pass clearing me for vag. whilst in the state of Georgia. | |
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 VAG, ON THE – Liable under the Vagrancy Act. | |
| ‘My Wandering Boy’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 119: He’s pulled for a vag, his excuse won’t do. | |
| Bound for Glory (1969) 213: The officers might grab her by the arm any time for ‘Vag.’. | |
| On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 238: I wish I knew what that charge was! Vag, probably; take all my money and charge me vag. | |
| City of Night 298: If you dont have a pad, theyll bust you for vag. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Shiner Slattery 57: Paddy and Paddy. Knew them both. Always on the vag. | |
| (con. 1920s) Legs 148: The only times he’ll be sober are when he’s serving time in the county jail for vag or drunkeness. | |
| ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 61: He’s got a nationwide rap sheet: vag/disorderly conduct/wienie wagger beefs. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2.
| Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 9 Sept. 8/6: S.C. Hathaway was taken in on the ‘vag’ act. | |
| Louisiana Capitolian (Baton Rouge, LA) 17 Nov. 4/1: It was easier to steal than to labor, and his ‘game’ limb was a fort and bulwark against the vag. law. | |
| ‘No Job Blues’ 🎵 I’m a poor vag prisoner working in the ice and snow. | |
| Limey 237: From the ‘vag’ tank [...] we could hear the whines and demands of hoboes trying to beg cigarettes. | |
| Men of the Und. 81: He was pinched on a vag charge. | |
| (con. 1930s) ‘Keep Moving’ 14: No lip from yous either, or you’ll be inside on a vag. charge. | |
| (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 167: Peeping Toms. Vag loitering. Solicitation for the purposes of prostitution. | |
| At Home on the Stroll 240: The vagrancy or ‘Vag C’ law was abolished in 1972. |
4. (Aus. Und.) constr. with the, the Vagrancy Act.
| Melbourne Dly News 12 Feb. 2/5: Thornton and Scales [...] went in search of a reinforcement with whom they returned, and captured Smith, after he had threatened Thornton that if ever he attempted to bring him up under the ‘Vag’) (meaning the Vagrant Act.) he would most assuredly settle him. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 5 May 5/7: I got 18 months under the Vag. |
In compounds
a charge of being an intravenous drug user.
| (con. 1950s) Addicts Who Survived 67: See, in Los Angeles, they’ve got a law there, if they see tracks on your arm, they would put you in jail – they call it ‘vag-addict.’ So I shot in my leg. | |
| Mr Blue 250: Yvonne Renee Dillon had several arrests under a law called ‘vag addict.’. |
a charge of loitering (the assumption being for sexual purposes).
| Quiet Fire 173: You could get arrested just standing on a corner. They called it ‘vag-lewd.’. |
In phrases
(Aus.) to charge with vagrancy.
| Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Dec. 4/7: Said the police, ‘Shift your swag, / Or we’ll spring yer the vag’. |