straggler
Americannoun
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a person or thing that lags behind others.
We’re waiting for a few stragglers, but all entries must be in by Wednesday, March 4th.
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a person, animal, ship, etc., that wanders around or strays from a path or course.
The French steamer Tourny, a straggler from its convoy, was sunk by a German U-boat.
There was a wood quail just 5 yards away on the trail, presumably a straggler from the covey.
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one of a number of persons or things scattered thinly or at irregular intervals in space or time.
I didn’t see too many weeds in the garden—just two or three stragglers.
Etymology
Origin of straggler
First recorded in 1525–35; straggle ( def. ) + -er 1 ( def. )
Explanation
If you're a straggler, you tend to dawdle at the very back of a group, often becoming separated from them because you're moving so slowly. Stragglers are constantly in danger of missing the bus. A straggler is the last person to leave a party, lingering to finish their cake and wander around looking for their coat. On a field trip, chaperones worry about losing stragglers who keep wandering away from the group. Straggler and straggle probably share a root with the Norwegian stragla, "walk laboriously." In astronomy, a blue straggler is an unusually luminous star originally believed to have formed later than the other stars in its cluster.
Vocabulary lists containing straggler
The Pearl
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"Laws are not the only way to boost immunization”: an editorial from Nature
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White Bird
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If you’re a straggler, though, you can always catch up with some other recent quality shows, including “Sugar,” “Widow’s Bay,” ”Star City” and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” to make it worth your while.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
Consumer spending data was OK, excluding cars, along with straggler earnings from the likes of FedEx and General Mills, which reported reasonable numbers.
From Barron's ● Dec. 19, 2025
And if he were to one day find a red straggler with the right surface features to indicate a primordial black hole?
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 13, 2023
The maker of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models has scored great success with its hybrids and fuel cells, but it has at times been seen as a straggler in electric vehicles.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
You don't have to watch many wildlife documentaries to know that the herd doesn't accept the lone straggler.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
