Also 6–8 stragler, 6 strag(g)eler, strageller, 7 Sc. straggillar. [f. STRAGGLE v.1 + -ER1.] One who, or a thing that, 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.
1530. Palsgr., 277/1. Straglers after an army, bidaulx, truandaille.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 486/2. Desertor,… a straggeler, or forsaker of his fellowes.
1592. Greene, Disput. Conny-catchers, D 3. A Maid shoulde not be a stragler, but like the Snayle, carry her house on her heade.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 327. Let’s whip these straglers o’re the Seas againe.
1610. Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, I. (1616), B 4 b. Wel. … Is your Ladie at home? Abi. She is no stragler Sir.
1617. Boys, 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.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., Butler (1745), 35, Note, That Bottles missing are supposed to be half stolen by Stragglers and other Servants.
1773. J. Berridge, Wks. (1864), 131. Satan may as well bar up his gates; he will not catch a single straggler.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, lxiv. I rode over the ground, in the hope of finding some solitary straggler of our party.
1883. Miss M. Betham-Edwards, Disarmed, xli. In an incredibly short space of time the vast pleasure-grounds were cleared of the last straggler.
transf. and fig. 1583. Greene, Mamillia, II. (1593), H 3. Æneas a verie stragler, yet Dido neuer founde halting.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xvii. 56. But Homesdale raised Hills, to keep the straggler [a river] in.
1748. Anson’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. Mil. A soldier who leaves the line of march or falls out of the ranks. † Also, a scout or skirmisher.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., V. xxv. (1612). 118. Vntill a desperate Stragler with an arrow pierst his head.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 160. He had lost his carriages with some fewe straglers that had marched disorderly.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 81. Our straglers that went out retired to the firm ground.
1644. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 53. He … tuik fourtie men and many horses and slew many of thair straggillars.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4337/2. Col. Hill … assembled the Stragglers of the English Regiments into a Body..
1813. Wellington, 19 July, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), X. 545. There are many stragglers still out.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, x. 205. He now rested for a time to recruit his troops, and to allow stragglers to rejoin him.
fig. 1589. Puttenham, 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.
1625. Gill, 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.
1850. Blackie, 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.
1879. Proctor, 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.
1670. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 134. We saw some of the Straglers posting down in wonderful haste.
1699. 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.
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Stragglers are seamen who desert and abscond from his Majesty’s ships.
1887. Queen’s Regul. Nav. Service, § 728. 289. The Constable, or other person bringing Deserters or Stragglers on board.
1891. Daily 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.
1591. Q. Eliz., Lett. 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.
1601. J. 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.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin. (1768), I. 74. There resorte many redde Dere stragelers to the Mountaines of Weredale.
1594. Barnfield, Affect. Sheph. (Arb.), 30. If any [sheep] prove a Strageller From his owne fellowes in a forraine field.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T., 118. Those Straglers [sc. deer] … being out of the Protection, because out of the Pale of the Parke.
1760. Ann. Reg., 127/1. The magistrates … have ordered all dogs to be muzzled … and all stragglers to be destroyed.
1830. Lyell, 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.
1852. Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, IV. 398. Very few [species] are permanently resident in Britain; but, with stragglers, we make up a pretty considerable list.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xviii. The stragglers or strayed cattle.
1899. W. T. Greene, Cage Birds, 40. The Blue-headed Wagtail … is rather an accidental straggler to our shores than a resident species.
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.
1553. 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.
1630. Bp. 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.
1703. Pope, Vertumnus, 38. Sometimes his pruning-hook corrects the vines, And the loose stragglers to their ranks confines.
1825. Lamb, 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.
1840. Mental Culture, 27. Field and hedgerow stragglers, exposed to all weathers, will never reach their full stature, luxuriance and beauty.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 16. In the antecedent bronze period there were no beech trees, or at most but a few stragglers.
