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Definition of "straggle" [strag•gle]

  • To stray or fall behind. (verb-intransitive)
  • To proceed or spread out in a scattered or irregular group. (verb-intransitive)
  • A scattered or disorderly group, as of people or things. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "straggle" in a sentence
  • "Sailors straggle back from their nights out on the town"
  • "He wanted to resume the retreat on the 12th, but destroying supplies and equipment took too much time, and the wounded continued to straggle into camp."
  • "She just kept walking, one canvas-clad foot in front of the other, looking sideways at the sunlit ripple of water, gleaming Lincoln memorial in front, straggle of Canada geese strewn on the grass, and then down at Suraiya's feet, clad sensibly today in only half-inch heels, in special consideration of their lunch-time walk on the Mall."