4. To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals. "Straggling pistol shots." Sir W. Scott.
They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.
Sir W. Raleigh. Straggle
(Strag"gle), n. The act of straggling. [R.] Carlyle.
Straggler
(Strag"gler) n.
1. One who straggles, or departs from the direct or proper course, or from the company to which he
belongs; one who falls behind the rest; one who rambles without any settled direction.
2. A roving vagabond. Shak.
3. Something that shoots, or spreads out, beyond the rest, or too far; an exuberant growth.
Let thy hand supply the pruning knife,
And crop luxuriant stragglers.
Dryden. 4. Something that stands alone or by itself.
Straggling
(Strag"gling) a. & n. from Straggle, v.
Stragglingly
(Strag"gling*ly), adv. In a straggling manner.
Stragulum
(||Strag"u*lum) n.; pl. Stragula [L., a spread or covering, from sternere to spread out.]
(Zoöl.) The mantle, or pallium, of a bird.
Straight
(Straight) a. A variant of Strait, a. [Obs. or R.]
Egypt is a long country, but it is straight, that is to say, narrow.
Sir J. Mandeville. Straight
(Straight), a. [Compar. Straighter ; superl. Straightest.] [OE. streit, properly p. p. of strecchen
to stretch, AS. streht, p. p. of streccan to stretch, to extend. See Stretch.]
1. Right, in a mathematical sense; passing from one point to another by the nearest course; direct; not
deviating or crooked; as, a straight line or course; a straight piece of timber.
And the crooked shall be made straight.
Isa. xl. 4.
There are many several sorts of crooked lines, but there is only one which is straight.
Dryden. 2. (Bot.) Approximately straight; not much curved; as, straight ribs are such as pass from the base of a
leaf to the apex, with a small curve.
3. (Card Playing) Composed of cards which constitute a regular sequence, as the ace, king, queen,
jack, and ten-spot; as, a straight hand; a straight flush.
4. Conforming to justice and rectitude; not deviating from truth or fairness; upright; as, straight dealing.
5. Unmixed; undiluted; as, to take liquor straight. [Slang]
6. Making no exceptions or deviations in one's support of the organization and candidates of a political
party; as, a straight Republican; a straight Democrat; also, containing the names of all the regularly nominated
candidates of a party and no others; as, a straight ballot. [Political Cant, U.S.]
Straight arch (Arch.), a form of arch in which the intrados is straight, but with its joints drawn radially,
as in a common arch. — A straight face, one giving no evidence of merriment or other emotion. —
A straight line. "That which lies evenly between its extreme points." Euclid. "The shortest line between
