Definition of "straggle"
straggle
verb
third-person singular simple present straggles, present participle straggling, simple past and past participle straggled
(intransitive) To stray, rove, or wander from a normal course and others of its kind.
Quotations
What, feareful coward, ſtragling from the camp,When Kings themſelues are preſent in the field?
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene iv
Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.
1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708
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.
1733, Eusebius Renaudot, transl., Ancient Accounts of India and China, London, page 61
noun
plural straggles
An irregular, spread-out group.
Quotations
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.
1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Doubleday & Company, Inc., page 38