straggle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈstɹæɡl̩/
rhymes: -æɡəl
Forms: form: straggles
form: straggling
form: straggled
form: straggled
Etymology: From Middle English straglen, of uncertain origin, possibly from (or cognate to) dialectal Norwegian stragla (“to walk laboriously”).
Senses: examples: text: He straggled away from the crowd and went off on his own.
text: What, feareful coward, ſtragling from the camp,
When Kings themſelues are preſent in the field?
ref: 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:
text: The wolf spy'd out a straggling Kid.
ref: 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:
text: Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1733, Eusebius Renaudot, transl., Ancient Accounts of India and China, London, →OCLC, page 61:
glosses: To stray, rove, or wander from a normal course and others of its kind.
examples: text: straggling pistol shots
ref: 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:
text: They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.
ref: 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):
text: Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs[…].
ref: 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
glosses: To act in a disorderly and irregular way.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1951 November, K. Westcott Jones, “Parkeston Quay and the Antwerp Continental Service”, in Railway Magazine, page 760:
glosses: To move along slowly so as to remain some distance behind the person or people in front.
Derived terms: word: straggler
word: stragglingly
word: straggling money