rolling stone

See also: Rolling Stone

English edit

rolling stone (plural rolling stones)

(idiomatic) A person who moves around a lot and never settles down; a vagrant.
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá:
  Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job.
- 1965, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Like a Rolling Stone”, in Highway 61 Revisited:
  How does it feel
  To be on your own
  With no direction home
  Like a complete unknown
  Like a rolling stone?
(slang) A womanizer.
- 1972, Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield (lyrics and music), “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone”:
  Papa was a rolling stone
  Wherever he laid his hat was his home
  And when he died, all he left us was a loan
(geology) A geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without animal or human intervention.
(astronomy) A meteoroid.

person who moves around and never settles down

womanizer — see womanizer