straggle

present singular third person straggles · participle present straggling · participle past straggled · past straggled

1. intransitiveTo stray, rove, or wander from a normal course and others of its kind.

   He straggled away from the crowd and went off on his own.

   4 more examples

   What, feareful coward, ſtragling from the camp, When Kings themſelues are preſent in the field?

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv

   The wolf spy'd out a straggling Kid.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

   Our Authors ſay there are no Elephants in China, which muſt be underſtood of the Provinces they knew, where, in truth, there are none. Father Martini writes, that they begin to be met with at Nanning, in the Province of Quangli, where the Inhabitants uſe them for War and for Carriage. Some there are alſo in the Province of Junnan ; nor is it a wonder that theſe Creatures, who ſo ſwarm in the Indies, and in Tungkin or Tonquin, ſhould ſtraggle hither.

   1733, Eusebius Renaudot, transl., Ancient Accounts of India and China, London, →OCLC, page 61

2. intransitiveTo act in a disorderly and irregular way.
3. Grow or hang messily.

   A few gray wisps straggled from underneath his cap.

   4 more examples

   The roses had been allowed to straggle across the path.

   straggling pistol shots

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.

   1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)

   Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs[…].

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

4. To move along slowly so as to remain some distance behind the person or people in front.

   1 more example

   In the reverse direction, creature comforts were not closely studied, and the vessel left Antwerp at 1 p.m., to arrive in Harwich at the awkward hour of 2 a.m. The boat train was waiting for the weary stream of passengers, who straggled up George Street, encumbered with luggage, or following burdened porters in the darkness.

   1951 November, K. Westcott Jones, “Parkeston Quay and the Antwerp Continental Service”, in Railway Magazine, page 760

plural straggles

1. An irregular, spread-out group.

   At Milton the road is blocked by yet another Anzac parade, a straggle of people raw-faced in the cold.

   2005, Joe Bennett, A Land of Two Halves, page 43

   2 more examples

   Twenty-five hundred hands snapped at a slant to the hats. The admiral strolled onto the field, smoking, followed by a straggle of officers, walking carelessly to symbolize the privileges of rank, but straggling at distances from the admiral strictly regulated by the number of sleeve stripes on each stragger.

   1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Doubleday & Company, Inc., page 38

   Apart from these few rail stations with a duka and a straggle of a few houses there was no town or village. That part of Kenya, mostly acacia bush and, further on, grassy plains with bush along the course of the few rivers, was empty of humanity […]

   2008, Denis Montgomery, Crest of a Wave, page 205

2. An outlier; something that has strayed beyond the normal limits.

   Nevertheless there is a straggle of pungent sense in it, — like the outskirts of lightning, seen in that dismally wet weather, which the Royal Party had.

   1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia