Straggle
['stræg(ə)l] or ['stræɡl]
Definition
(noun.) a wandering or disorderly grouping (of things or persons); 'a straggle of outbuildings'; 'a straggle of followers'.
Inputed by Hilary--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To wander from the direct course or way; to rove; to stray; to wander from the line of march or desert the line of battle; as, when troops are on the march, the men should not straggle.
(v. t.) To wander at large; to roam idly about; to ramble.
(v. t.) To escape or stretch beyond proper limits, as the branches of a plant; to spread widely apart; to shoot too far or widely in growth.
(v. t.) To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals.
(n.) The act of straggling.
Checker: Roy
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Rove, ramble, stray, stroll, range, roam, wander, deviate, digress, gad about, go out of the way, go astray.
Typist: Nola
Definition
v.i. to wander from the course: to ramble: to stretch beyond proper limits: to be dispersed.—ns. Stragg′ler one who straggles from the course: a wandering fellow: a vagabond: a migratory animal found away from its usual range; Stragg′le-tooth a misshapen or misplaced tooth.—adv. Stragg′lingly in a straggling manner.—n. Straggl′ing-mon′ey money paid for apprehending deserters and men absent without leave: money deducted from the wages of such absentees.—adj. Stragg′ly straggling spread out.
Typed by Gwendolyn
Examples
- Don't straggle, my man. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Now, whenever he left the camp he was sure to bring home game, while the other men would straggle back for the most part empty-handed. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- After they had waited some time, straggling people who had heard of the accident began to come up; then the real help of implements began to arrive. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Although Sheridan had been marching all day, his troops moved with alacrity and without any straggling. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Come, straggling lights into the windows of the ugly houses; and you who do iniquity therein, do it at least with this dread scene shut out! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Heston itself was one long straggling street, running parallel to the seashore. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- And what's this straggling about in an idle sort of a way? Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Straggling had entirely ceased, and every man was now a rival for the front. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Shoals of our straggling youth have been swept into the ocean by an unexpected breeze! Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Coarse grass and rank weeds straggled over all the marshy land in the vicinity. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Men went, but only kings and nobles straggled back; and that often only after heavy taxation for a ransom. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The few of his followers who have returned have straggled hither like this Wilfred of Ivanhoe, beggared and broken men. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
Inputed by Bennett