STRAGGLE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does straggle mean? 

• STRAGGLE (noun)
  The noun STRAGGLE has 1 sense:

1. a wandering or disorderly grouping (of things or persons)

  Familiarity information: STRAGGLE used as a noun is very rare.

• STRAGGLE (verb)
  The verb STRAGGLE has 2 senses:

1. wander from a direct or straight course

2. go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way

  Familiarity information: STRAGGLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STRAGGLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wandering or disorderly grouping (of things or persons)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

a straggle of followers

Hypernyms ("straggle" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Derivation:

straggle (go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way)

straggle (wander from a direct or straight course)

straggly (spreading out in different directions or distributed irregularly)

• STRAGGLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they straggle    ... he / she / it straggles   
Past simple: straggled   
Past participle: straggled   
-ing form: straggling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wander from a direct or straight course

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

depart; digress; sidetrack; straggle

Hypernyms (to "straggle" is one way to...):

deviate; divert (turn aside; turn away from)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

straggle (a wandering or disorderly grouping (of things or persons))

straggler (someone who strays or falls behind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

sprawl; straggle

Context example:

Branches straggling out quite far

Hypernyms (to "straggle" is one way to...):

distribute; spread (distribute or disperse widely)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

straggle (a wandering or disorderly grouping (of things or persons))

 Context examples 

The house has been added to, but in a very straggling way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which must be very great.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I saw the outside of the note, addressed in straggling, irregular characters, very unlike Holmes’s usual precise hand.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is the 'Mouton d'Or,'” said Aylward, as they pulled up their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They passed out through the gates of the park with, straggling in the rear, a second gang, the friends that Lizzie's young man had collected to avenge the loss of his lady.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Address printed in rather straggling characters: ‘Miss S. Cushing, Cross Street, Croydon.’ Done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and with very inferior ink.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Coarse grass and rank weeds straggled over all the marshy land in the vicinity.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here they spread out into a long straggling line of spearmen and bowmen.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, thus equipped, we all set out—even the fellow with the broken head, who should certainly have kept in shadow—and straggled, one after another, to the beach, where the two gigs awaited us.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At his invitation we had taken tea at the vicarage and had come to know, also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, an independent gentleman, who increased the clergyman’s scanty resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A little hamlet, whose roofs were blent with trees, straggled up the side of one of these hills; the church of the district stood nearer Thornfield: its old tower-top looked over a knoll between the house and gates.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)