| 释义 |
▪ I. straggle, n.|ˈstræg(ə)l|
In 5–6 stragill, -yll.
[f. straggle v.1]
†1. Phr. at, to (the) straggle, in straggling order. Sc. Obs.
c1470Henry Wallace x. 683 At stragyll raid quhat Scot mycht formest pas. Ibid. 699 The frayit folk, at stragill that was fleand. 1513Douglas æneis xii. xi. 4 A few menȝe persewand our the plane, Quhilk at the stragill fled in all thar mane. 1549Diurn. Occurr. (Bannatyne Club) 49 Thaj tarijt nocht, bot past away with all spulȝie thaj mycht get. The Scottis followit thame to the stragill.
2. A body or group of scattered objects; an irregular or fitful emergence (of something); a thin, lank, or untidy growth (of hair). Also Comb.
1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. vi. V. 539 Here are some private utterances of his, throwing a straggle of light on those points. 1869― in Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 266 With a considerable straggle of audience, I found this artist industriously fiddling. 1906F. S. Oliver Alex. Hamilton iii. vi. 238 Where now there is but a thin straggle of stunted trees. 1978H. Wouk War & Remembrance i. 7 His once-thick brown hair was a gray straggle. 1979C. MacLeod Family Vault xviii. 117 Edith, puffy-faced and straggle-haired, stumped upstairs.
▪ II. straggle, v.1|ˈstræg(ə)l|
Forms: 5 stragyll, 5–6 stragel, 5–8 stragle, 6– straggle.
[Of somewhat uncertain etymology; perh. an alteration of *strackle frequentative f. strake v.: see -le. Cf. dial. strackle-brain, strackling, a giddy, thoughtless person (which, however, may be connected rather with stract distract a.) The dial. strag a vagabond, a stray pigeon, may perh. be a back-formation from the verb.]
1. a. intr. To wander or stray from the proper road, one's companions, etc.; to rove without fixed direction; to go up and down dispersedly. Often conjugated with be. Often with adv., as about, abroad, away, behind.
c1400Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxv, Þe forster shulde haue men redely þere too meete with hym, þat þei go no ferther nor stragle aboute. c1450Brut 576 Both horse⁓men and footemen, with huntyng of hem, were stragelt abrode ouer all þe feldys, and were al out of array. 1461Paston Lett. II. 3 Thei have no capteyn ner rewler..and so thei stragyll abowte be them self. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 89 [They] runne stragling and rouing..from towne to towne. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 23 To see if any of his ewes and lambes were straggled downe to the strond. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xi. 178 There is no danger that weak folks if they walk abroad will straggle farre. 1669Dryden Tempest iii. (1670) 34 He..looks about him like a Callow-bird Just straggl'd from the nest. 1707Mortimer Husb. 195 Turkeys being very apt to straggle will often be laying their Eggs in secret places. 1711Addison Spect. No. 130 ⁋1 They [the gipsies] generally straggle into these Parts about this Time of the Year. 1768G. White Selborne, To Pennant 28 Nov., It is very extra⁓ordinary..that a bird so common with us should never straggle to you. 1776Pennant Brit. Zool. (ed. 4) I. 142 When the first crowd [of seals] is past, they kill as many as straggle behind. 1788G. Keate Pelew Isl. x. 111 Captain Wilson's servant, who was straggling about with his gun to kill some fowl for dinner. 1877H. Saunders in Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878) 171 An individual of this species [Larus affinis] which had straggled to Greenland.
b. spec. of a soldier: To wander from the line of march, stray from one's company. Also of a ship: To stray from the line of battle. Of a sailor: To be absent from his ship without leave or overstay his leave.
1529Rastell Pastyme (1811) 227, .xx. archers whiche straggled from theyr companye. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 102 To be carefull that the souldiers straggle not. 1648Gage West Ind. 201 She was somewhat far stragled from the rest of the ships. 1760Cautions & Advices to Officers of Army 171 Keep then at the head of your Pelotoon..and suffer not the Men of it to straggle or break their Rank. 1790Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 188 The Rear-Admiral's division had straggled, and was a great way astern of the centre. 1831Scott Ct. Rob. vii, If any straggle from their standards, or insult the country by marauding. 1863A. Young Naut. Dict. 395 People who have overstaid their leave of absence, or straggled. 1913Q. Rev. Oct. 555 They sickened or straggled or frankly deserted.
†c. Of a merchant: To intrude into a market where he has no licence to trade; to ‘interlope’. Obs. Cf. straggler c, straggling ppl. a. b.
1588Acts Privy Council XVI. 83 The Merchauntes..goe straglinge about all the countrey adjoyninge, forstallinge, inhansinge, and raysinge the pryce of all kynd of commodytyes there. 1601,1622[see straggling vbl. n.].
d. transf. and fig. (of persons and things).
1588Greene Metamorph. (1617) G 4 b, Be thou stedfast and no doubt thou shalt not finde him stragling. 1632tr. Bruel's Praxis Med. 329 The collicke..doth straggle ouer the whole region of the belly. 1641Milton Prel. Episc. Wks. 1851 III. 77 That sovran Book which we had fondly straggl'd from. a1661Fuller Triana (1867) 188 Vices straggle not alone, but go in companies. c1698Locke Cond. Underst. §29 Wks. 1714 III. 414 He that will observe Children, will find, that even when they endeavour their utmost, they cannot keep their Minds from straggling. 1711Addison Spect. No. 129 ⁋6 One of the last Year's little Muffs had by some means or other straggled into those Parts. 1758L. Temple Sketches (ed. 2) 35 To compress within three Lines, what must otherwise straggle into four. 1848Dickens Haunted Man (1887) 5 Its sun-dial in a little bricked-up corner, where no sun had straggled for a hundred years. 1885Athenæum 7 Feb. 193 Goldsmith..straggled into literature as the humble hack of Griffiths the bookseller. 1891C. E. Norton Dante's Hell xxv. 138 Here let the novelty be my excuse if my pen straggle a little.
e. Of a plant, branch, etc.: To grow irregularly or loosely; to spread or shoot too far. Also, of hair: to spread in lank or untidy strands. Cf. straggling ppl. a. c.
1693Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard., Culture Orange-trees 25 To Cut away..all that part which grows out of due Rank, and stragles beyond its bound. 1762R. Lloyd Author's Apol. 179 Though prudence, and our nature's pride May wish our weaknesses to hide, And set their hedges up before 'em, Some sprouts will branch, and straggle o'er 'em. 1841Browning Pippa Passes i. Poems (1905) 167 How these tall Naked geraniums straggle! 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xvii. 106 Her dirty hair straggled on the pillow. 1958A. Sillitoe Saturday Night & Sunday Morning i. 17 Her hair straggled untidily over the pillow.
f. Of inanimate objects: To be arranged dispersedly or irregularly; to be situated apart from any main body or from one another. Of a town, building, etc.: To be built irregularly and without compactness. Of a road, river, fence, etc.: To wind in an irregular course.
1611Speed Theat. Gr. Brit. xx. (1614) 39/1 The forme thereof is somewhat circular, with many indents to fetch in those Townes that are dispersedly stragled into her next Shire. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. i. 607 Sometimes they finde it [silver] straggling, in peeces, not holding any continuing Veine. a1661Fuller Worthies, Norf. (1662) 250 This said William Paston.., lies buryed in Norwich; so that his corps..do straggle from the Sepulture of their Ancestors, who..were all interred at Paston. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 31 The River Oder,..staggles so, as that to come to the City from Dam side, a man must pass over six bridges. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xii, A little hamlet which straggled along the side of a creek. 1850Hawthorne Scarlet L. xvi, The road,..straggled onward into the mystery of the primeval forest. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. iii. (1878) 26 In another direction the houses went straggling away into a wood. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xvi, The..township..straggled around the edge of a sombre watercourse.
¶2. Misused for straddle v. rare—1.
Cf. dial. straggle-bug = straddle-bug, strag-legs (Ireland) = straddle-legs.
1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xxii. xi. 206 The whole multitude..came upon Georgius, whome they haled and tugged with his legs and feet wide stragling.
3.
†a. trans. To scatter, disperse. Obs. rare.
1589Bigges Summarie Drake's W. Ind. Voy. 19 The dead body of one of our boyes, found by them stragling all alone, from whom they had taken his head and his heart, and had stragled the other bowels about the place.
b. pass. To be placed stragglingly. U.S.
1898Secretan To Klondyke & Back 110 At this time the ‘City’ consisted of several hundred tents, straggled along in the mud for about a mile and a half. 1902Munsey's Mag. XXVI. 479/2 Few have seen the little, old town straggled along the backwater.
Hence ˈstraggled ppl. a.
1641Shirley Cardinal v. iii. (1652) 62 Ha? if the Dutchess in her stragled wits, Let fall words to betray me to the Cardinal. 1682Dryden & Tate Abs. & Achit. ii. 1124 Thronging and busie as Hyblæan Swarms, Or stragled Souldiers Summon'd to their Arms. 1787P. Oliver 18 Mar. in T. Hutchinson's Diary II. 424 Having nothing but a rusty straggled nail to write with. 1805Collingwood 24 Oct. in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. 217 The remnant of the Combined Fleet..stood up to leeward of my shattered and straggled charge as if meaning to attack them. 1884‘V. Lee’ C'tess Albany iii. 27 Its straggled, black and filthy streets. 1887Pall Mall Gaz. 15 July 5/1 A rocky, splashing streamlet..fringed with patches of gorse and straggled belts of natural wood.
▪ III. straggle, v.2|ˈstræg(ə)l|
[Of obscure origin.]
trans. To rough-dress (a grindstone). Cf. straggling vbl. n.2
In recent Dicts. |