straggle

Etymology

From Middle English straglen, of uncertain origin.

verb

1. To stray, rove, or wander from a normal course and others of its kind.
   He straggled away from the crowd and went off on his own.
   Our Authors ſay there are no Elephants in China, which muſt be underſtood of the Provinces they knew, where, in truth, there are none. Father Martini writes, that they begin to be met with at Nanning, in the Province of Quangli, where the Inhabitants uſe them for War and for Carriage. Some there are alſo in the Province of Junnan ; nor is it a wonder that theſe Creatures, who ſo ſwarm in the Indies, and in Tungkin or Tonquin, ſhould ſtraggle hither. 1733, Eusebius Renaudot, transl., Ancient Accounts of India and China, London, →OCLC, page 61
2. To act in a disorderly and irregular way
   Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs[…]. 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict

noun

1. An irregular, spread-out group.
   Twenty-five hundred hands snapped at a slant to the hats. The admiral strolled onto the field, smoking, followed by a straggle of officers, walking carelessly to symbolize the privileges of rank, but straggling at distances from the admiral strictly regulated by the number of sleeve stripes on each stragger. 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Doubleday & Company, Inc., page 38
   At Milton the road is blocked by yet another Anzac parade, a straggle of people raw-faced in the cold. 2005, Joe Bennett, A Land of Two Halves, page 43
   Apart from these few rail stations with a duka and a straggle of a few houses there was no town or village. That part of Kenya, mostly acacia bush and, further on, grassy plains with bush along the course of the few rivers, was empty of humanity […] 2008, Denis Montgomery, Crest of a Wave, page 205
2. An outlier; something that has strayed beyond the normal limits.
   Nevertheless there is a straggle of pungent sense in it, — like the outskirts of lightning, seen in that dismally wet weather, which the Royal Party had. 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia