STRAGGLER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Straggler

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/strˈæglər/ Listen

noun

Straggler n.

One who straggles, or departs from the direct or proper course, or from the company to which he belongs; one who falls behind the rest; one who rambles without any settled direction.

A roving vagabond.

Something that shoots, or spreads out, beyond the rest, or too far; an exuberant growth. "Let thy hand supply the pruning knife, And crop luxuriant stragglers."

Something that stands alone or by itself.

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Etymology of 'Straggler'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Straggler" Quotes from Famous Books

... he once wrote, "a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked ...

— The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln • Helen Nicolay

... tie straggling far in the rear. Redruff, yards behind, preening his feathers on a high log, had escaped the of the squirrel, whose strange perverted thirst for birdling blood was roused at what seemed so fair a chance. With murderous intent to cut off the hindmost straggler, he made a dash. Brownie could not have seen him until too late, but Redruff did. He flew for that red-haired cutthroat; his weapons were his fists, that is, the knob-joints of the wings, and what a blow he could strike! At the first onset he struck the squirrel square on ...

— Wild Animals I Have Known • Ernest Thompson Seton

... his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycle back of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill. His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout or straggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided ...

— The Boy Scouts on the Trail • George Durston

... The shops were all shut, and the voices of business and amusement were hushed. The market place, which yesterday was full of swarming life, and sent forth a confused uproar, was deserted and dumb—not a straggler was to be seen of all ...

— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... had become by 1540 similar to an estate which has been shot over too frequently; birds had become both wild and scarce, it was hardly worth while to go over the ground, except now and again on the chance of picking up a straggler. Towns and islands, on the other hand, even if they did not yield much in the way of actual plunder, were always good cover to beat for slaves, which had a certain value in the markets of Algiers and Tunis. Another circumstance which had led to ...

— Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean • E. Hamilton Currey

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