to straggle
8
6.4
- verb
- /ˈstræɡəl/
:
desparramarse
- They're some of the orphans that straggled down here from Holtsville.
Examples
-
A few more people had straggled in and headed straight for the bar for drinks.
Fiction book (1997) -
After the long hike, some of the hikers straggled behind, exhausted and slow to move.
-
And she and most of the others straggled off into the woods toward the road.
Fiction book (1998) -
So nobody straggles, nobody gets separated, nobody gets left behind.
-
Hal walks over and opens the door, and Max and the others straggle back in.
Fiction book (1991) -
The grandchildren, Carrie and Mike, straggle sleepily into the kitchen and stay.
Fiction book (1990) -
Alice, the President's 13-year-old daughter, straggles out of the car, rolling her eyes.
Fiction book (1997) -
First two, then four, then a swarm of black ants straggled out of the crumbly yellow cake.
Fiction book (1993) -
Their faces were dirt-streaked, eyes vacant; their hair straggled into their eyes in ratty tangles.
Fiction book (1992) -
More automobile services sprouted at town gateways and then straggled into the open countryside along the roadsides.
Academic text (1998)
Synonyms
104
4.4
To cause people and things, like a crowd or fog, to spread over a wide area
89
2.8
To move apart and cover a wider area
27
4.6
To spread out over a large area in an untidy way
To grow or spread in a thin, uneven, untidy way
Antonyms
How Scattered
Surface Forms
Etymology
The verb straggle is like stray, meaning 'to go off' or 'to lag', so to straggle is to move or grow in an untidy, spread-out way or to fall behind the main group.