Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Straggle

Strag′gle (străg′g'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Straggled; p. pr. & vb. n. Straggling.] [Freq. of OE. straken to roam, to stroke. See Stroke, v. t.] 1. 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. Dryden.

2. To wander at large; to roam idly about; to ramble.

The wolf spied out a straggling kid. L'Estrange.

3. 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.

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

4. To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals. "Straggling pistol shots." Sir W. Scott.

They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks. Sir W. Raleigh.

Strag′gle, n. The act of straggling. [R.] Carlyle.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.