| 释义 |
straggler|ˈstræglə(r)|
Also 6–8 stragler, 6 strag(g)eler, strageller, 7 Sc. straggillar.
[f. straggle v.1 + -er1.]
One who, or a thing which, straggles.
1. One who wanders or roves without fixed direction; one who strays from his companions or from the regular route; † a gadabout; † a camp-follower, a tramp, vagabond.
1530Palsgr. 277/1 Straglers after an army, bidaulx, truandaille. 1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 486/2 Desertor,..a straggeler, or forsaker of his fellowes. 1592Greene Disput. Conny-catchers D 3, A Maid shoulde not be a stragler, but like the Snayle, carry her house on her heade. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 327 Let's whip these straglers o're the Seas againe. 1610Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady i. (1616) B 4 b, Wel... Is your Ladie at home? Abi. She is no stragler Sir. 1617Boys Expos. Proper Ps. ii. 33 Euen so the Church of God wandereth as a straggler and as a stranger in the wildernesse of this world. 1729Swift Direct. Serv., Butler (1745) 35 Note, That Bottles missing are supposed to be half stolen by Stragglers and other Servants. 1773J. Berridge Wks. (1864) 131 Satan may as well bar up his gates; he will not catch a single straggler. 1828Lytton Pelham lxiv, I rode over the ground, in the hope of finding some solitary straggler of our party. 1883M. B. Betham-Edwards Disarmed xli, In an incredibly short space of time the vast pleasure-grounds were cleared of the last straggler.
transf. and fig.1583Greene Mamillia ii. (1593) H 3, æneas a verie stragler, yet Dido neuer founde halting. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xvii. 56 But Homesdale raised Hills, to keep the straggler [a river] in. 1748Anson's Voy. Introd. (c) 4 b, The Manila ships are the only ones which have ever traversed this vast ocean, except a French straggler or two.
2. a. Mil. A soldier who leaves the line of march or falls out of the ranks. † Also, a scout or skirmisher.
1589Warner Alb. Eng. v. xxv. (1612) 118 Vntill a desperate Stragler with an arrow pierst his head. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 160 He had lost his carriages with some fewe straglers that had marched disorderly. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 81 Our straglers that went out retired to the firm ground. 1644in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 53 He..tuik fourtie men and many horses and slew many of thair straggillars. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4337/2 Col. Hill..assembled the Stragglers of the English Regiments into a Body. 1813Wellington 19 July in Gurw. Desp. (1838) X. 545 There are many stragglers still out. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage x. 205 He now rested for a time to recruit his troops, and to allow stragglers to rejoin him.
fig.1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 240 This maner of speech is termed the figure of digression by the Latines,..we also call him the straggler by allusion to the souldier that marches out of his array. 1625Gill Sacr. Philos. Pref., Although it be not lawfull for mee to handle either sword or speare; yet because I wish well to these holy wars, I have as a stragler brought my baskets of stones. 1850Blackie æschylus II. Notes 308 These Australians and Africans may be mere imbecile stragglers who have been dropt from the great army of humanity in its march. 1879Proctor Pleas. Ways Sci. v. 119 The two meteors..may have been stragglers from the main body.
b. Naut. A sailor who is absent from his ship without leave or who overstays his leave.
1670Covel in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.) 134 We saw some of the Straglers posting down in wonderful haste. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 15 The Captain was not among them; and they were afraid to tell the Spaniards so, for fear of being all hanged for Straglers. 1815Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Stragglers are seamen who desert and abscond from his Majesty's ships. 1887Queen's Regul. Nav. Service §728. 289 The Constable, or other person bringing Deserters or Stragglers on board. 1891Daily News 22 Jan. 7/3 Sidney Stevens,..dressed in the uniform of a sailor, was charged before Mr. John Dickinson with being a ‘straggler.’
†3. A merchant who intrudes into a market without licence to trade there; an interloper. Obs.
1591Queen Elizabeth Let. to Emp. Russia 14 Jan. in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) I. 500 To purge your Countrey of such straglers of our subiects, as..are not of the Company of our merchants. 1601J. Wheeler Treat. Comm. 55 marg., The pedlarlike dealing of the English straglers at the Narue.
4. An animal that strays from its habitat or companions; esp. a migratory bird found at a place outside its usual range; spec. in Austral. and N.Z., a stray unbranded animal or one that falls behind or is overlooked in a round-up. Also fig.
a1552Leland Itin. (1768) I. 74 There resorte many redde Dere stragelers to the Mountaines of Weredale. 1594Barnfield Affect. Sheph. (Arb.) 30 If any [sheep] prove a Strageller From his owne fellowes in a forraine field. 1647Fuller Good Th. in Worse T. 118 Those Straglers [sc. deer]..being out of the Protection, because out of the Pale of the Parke. 1760Ann. Reg. 127/1 The magistrates..have ordered all dogs to be muzzled..and all stragglers to be destroyed. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. (1835) III. 72 These animals of more southern seas can be considered only as stragglers attracted to our shores..by an abundant supply of food. 1848H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Austral. vi. 56 Innumerable animals of every kind of brand, and others with no brand at all, and known as ‘stragglers’, are mixed with the herds in the interior. 1852Macgillivray Brit. Birds IV. 398 Very few [species] are permanently resident in Britain; but, with stragglers, we make up a pretty considerable list. 1860G. Duppa in S. S. Crawford Sheep & Sheepmen Canterbury (1949) v. 46 Complete dipping flock..deliver stragglers. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xviii, The stragglers or strayed cattle. 1899W. T. Greene Cage Birds 40 The Blue-headed Wagtail..is rather an accidental straggler to our shores than a resident species. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xvii. 296 Then I'm going to have a good fling and settle down with a straggler if I can't get the bell ewe. 1933L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 16 Dec. 21/8 Straggler, sheep that has been left on the country at a muster. It is usual to go over the country again to pick them up. 1953O. E. Middleton in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 186 Shepherding the stragglers would be Charlie's strong-eyes, Beau and Belle. 1972P. Newton Sheep Thief 188 Sheep that have been missed in a main muster are ‘stragglers’. To get them in may necessitate a special muster.
5. A plant, branch, etc., that grows irregularly or shoots too far; also, a plant, fruit, etc., found growing singly or apart from others of its kind. Similarly, a stray lock of hair. Also fig.
1553R. Ascham in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 14 And I in a manner alone of that tyme left a standing straggler, peradventur, though my frute be very smaul, yet,..I may yet be thought somwhat fitt for seede. 1630Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. liii. (1633) 125 There you see a cluster, whose grapes touch one another, well ripened; heere you see some straglers, which grow almost solitarily, greene and hard. 1703Pope Vertumnus 38 Sometimes his pruning-hook corrects the vines, And the loose stragglers to their ranks confines. 1825Lamb Elia ii. Wedding, My friend the Admiral..did not at once shove up his borrowed locks..to betray the few grey stragglers of his own beneath them. 1840Mental Culture 27 Field and hedgerow stragglers, exposed to all weathers, will never reach their full stature. 1863Lyell Antiq. Man 16 In the antecedent bronze period there were no beech trees, or at most but a few stragglers. |