Straggle /(?)/

imp. & p. p. Straggled; p. pr. & vb. n. Straggling

1. To wander from the direct course or way; to rove; to stray; to wander from the line of march or desert the line of battle; as, when troops are on the march, the men should not straggle.
2. To wander at large; to roam idly about; to ramble.

   The wolf spied out a straggling kid.

3. To escape or stretch beyond proper limits, as the branches of a plant; to spread widely apart; to shoot too far or widely in growth.

   Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.

4. To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals.

   They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.

1. The act of straggling. [R.]