straggle

From Middle English straglen, of uncertain origin, possibly from (or cognate to) dialectal Norwegian stragla (“to walk laboriously”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹæɡl̩/
• Rhymes: -æɡəl
• Hyphenation: strag‧gle

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straggle (third-person singular simple present straggles, present participle straggling, simple past and past participle straggled)

1. (intransitive) To 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.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: 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:

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

   • 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 Sare, , →OCLC:

     The wolf spy'd out a straggling Kid.

   • 1707, J Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. , London: J H for H Mortlock , and J Robinson , →OCLC:

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

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

     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.

2. (intransitive) To act in a disorderly and irregular way.
   • 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:

     straggling pistol shots

   • 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):

     They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.

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

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

3. To move along slowly so as to remain some distance behind the person or people in front.
   • 1951 November, K. Westcott Jones, “Parkeston Quay and the Antwerp Continental Service”, in Railway Magazine, page 760:

     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.

straggle (plural straggles)

1. An irregular, spread-out group.
   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Doubleday & Company, Inc., page 38:

     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.

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

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

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

     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 […]

2. An outlier; something that has strayed beyond the normal limits.
   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia:

     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.