1809, Joseph Ritson, The jurisdiction of the Court leet, page 28:
Court leet hath power to fine men that are noctivagant.
1823, James Hogg, The Three Perils of Woman; Or, Love, Leasing and Jealousy: A Series of Domestic Scottish Tales p. 145:
...I therefore think, Sarah, that the incommensurability of the crime with the effect, completely warrants the supersaliency of this noctivagant delinquent.
1860, Richard Cunningham McCormick, St. Paul's to St. Sophia: or, Sketchings in Europe, page 295:
A dark night brings this lurid flame into bold relief and furnishes an awful light, whereby, for many leagues around, the noctivagant landsman or mariner may know his course and bearing.
1881, William Wilkins, Songs of Study, page 21:
What joy ere I press my mattress! what chatter all round where I sit! The noctivagant student head-dress being rife to-night in the Pit.
1911, Ambrose Bierce, "Newspapers", in The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume IX, The Neale Publishing Company (1911), page 158:
If there were it would spare from condemnation the grocer who sells poisonous goods because there is demand for them, the noctivagant Dago crying his rotten tamales, the quack doctor in pursuit of his patient's health.
1967, Walter Hamilton, Parodies of the Works of English & American Authors, Johnson Reprint Corporation, p. 195,
Over the city, the suburb, the slum / He rambled from pillar to post, / And backward and forward, observant, though dumb, / As a fleetly noctivagant ghost.
1967, Walter Hamilton, Parodies of the Works of English & American Authors p. 142:
But the Demon's a deuce of a rider to catch, And it taxes brave Shaw to continue a match For the fiery noctivagant ranger.
1982, Nirmal Probha Bardoloi, Assamese Short Stories: An Anthology p. 36:
...Eso again turned noctivagant. That was why the Pastor could not meet him.
1984, Charles Harpur, Elizabeth M. Perkins, The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur p. 495:
The bidawong, like the kindyne, is a noctivagant animal, and less like the European quadruped after which it has been partly named.
2001, Raymond Queneau, Zazie in the Metro p. 153:
Primary and defalcatory policeman, noctivagant miscreant, irresolute pursuer of widows and orphans, these fleeting images allow me to assume without apprehension the minor risks of ridicule, of absurdity, and of sentimental effusion (noble gesture in the direction of the late widow Mouaque).
2003, Alan Wall, The School of Night p. 223:
Not merely nocturnal but noctivagant, a nightwalker, a prowler, a nomad of the midnight streets attempting to abolish the distinction between the light that comes from outside and the sort that shines within.
2005, Thomas Martindale, Sport Indeed p. 177:
When the sun dropped behind the ridges and this duskiness began to creep over the face of nature, it seemed as if the thoughtful dame had given all her creatures - except her noctivagant rakes — quick notice to finish whatever task they had on hand and get to bed.
