Other forms: straggling, straggled
To straggle is to trail along behind in a scattered line. Straggle in, straggle behind, a straggling column.
It describes a group that has lost its shape rather than one person being slow, and a straggler is whoever is at the back of it. It also describes plants and towns that spread untidily — a straggling hedge has grown without a plan.
1verbstraggleTo trail along behind in a scattered line.
“The younger children straggled behind as the class walked up the hill.”
straggle is a trailing.
Middle English straglen, of unknown origin, possibly related to a Norwegian dialect word meaning to walk with effort.
Norwegian
stragla — to walk laboriously
Middle English
straglen
English, today
straggle
From Middle English straglen, of unknown, possibly from (or cognate to) dialectal Norwegian stragla (“to walk laboriously”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire