STRAGGLER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • 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

... Lynde's fresh outbreak. Some one picked up his hat and set it on the back of his head, giving him quite a rakish air. His dignity suffered until the wind took the hat again. The party proceeded in silence, halting once to tighten a girth, and another time to wait for a straggler. If the men spoke to one another it was in subdued tones or whispers. Two of the horsemen trotted on a hundred yards in advance, like skirmishers thrown out in front of an attacking force. There was something in all this mysterious precaution and reticence which bewildered and ...

— The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... French, "Archibuse pattue" or "Buse pattue."—Though its visits seem not so absolutely confined to the autumn as the Common Buzzard, the Rough-legged Buzzard is a much more uncommon visitant to the Channel Islands, and can only be looked upon as a rare occasional straggler. Mr. MacCulloch informs me that one was killed near L'Hyvreuse, which is perhaps now more commonly known as the New Ground, in Guernsey, about Christmas, 1870, and I found one at the bird-stuffer and carpenter's shop at Alderney, which had been shot by ...

— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith

... the last straggler of the party had disappeared from Lydia, who had watched their retreat from the door of the Warren Lodge. When she turned to go in she saw Cashel cautiously entering from the room in which he had lain concealed. His excitement had passed off; he looked cold and anxious, as if a reaction were ...

— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw

... commandant's mind, and although the gas-jets continued contumacious (the gas-workers were all called up to the colours) the maire was not molested. It was here that we heard a shameful story (for the truth of which I will not vouch) of a certain straggler from our army, a Highlander, who tarried in amorous dalliance and was betrayed by his enchantress to the Huns, who, having deprived him of everything but his kilt, led him mounted upon a horse in Bacchanalian procession round the town. As to what became ...

— Leaves from a Field Note-Book • J. H. Morgan

... shows nor right nor wrong in Him, Nor kind, nor cruel: He is strong and Lord. 'Am strong myself compared to yonder crabs 100 That march now from the mountain to the sea; 'Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-first, Loving not, hating not, just choosing so. 'Say, the first straggler that boasts purple spots Shall join the file, one pincer twisted off; 105 'Say, this bruised fellow shall receive a worm, And two worms he whose nippers end in red; As it likes me each ...

— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

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