How to Use straggle in a Sentence

straggle

verb

• She straggled behind the rest of the group.
• Branches straggled out and blocked the path.
• People straggled off the train.
• The children straggled in from outside.
• Man, were those straggling fans rewarded with a sight that brought the house down.
  — Henry Schulman, SFChronicle.com, 11 Aug. 2019
• Golfers straggled back and lined up outside the clubhouse for dinner.
  — Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2019
• Many members straggled in days late, having been stranded and delayed by the snow.
  — Lillian Cunningham, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2018
• Half an hour before showtime, a bus pulled up and out straggled the bleary-looking Arkestra.
  — Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026
• There was one, a ride-sharing car waiting to make a right turn while people straggled through the crosswalk.
  — James Barron, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2019
• Seven of us had straggled back to camp wet and cold from a miserable day’s hunt in a blowing snowstorm.
  — Bill Shaber, Outdoor Life, 22 Oct. 2025
• Longtime customers still straggle in for beer and alcoholic drinks, but now people come in droves from all over for good food.
  — Marilyn Hagerty, Bon Appetit, 6 June 2018
• Separated from their family and each other, each boy found a way to straggle home on his own.
  — Mujib Mashal, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2021
• Marckx said the winners will likely finish in about six and a half hours, while some will straggle in after perhaps 16 hours.
  — Teri Figueroa, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 May 2017
• In the longer races, some competitors would straggle to the finish line well after Heiden had won and departed.
  — Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2022
• As the students straggle in, those who are about to lead the service gather for a quick prayer, standing on the basketball court near the corner three-point line.
  — Freep.com, 8 Oct. 2021
• My first stop was Hawaii in early ’45, just as guys were straggling back from fierce battles on Iwo Jima.
  — Marc Myers, WSJ, 8 May 2018
• The numbers will always be revised later as straggling data sets and survey responses trickle in.
  — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 3 July 2026
• The president, poor Melanie Maepole, tried to call the group to order, but three of the fourteen members straggled in late.
  — Leslie Anne Tarabella, AL.com, 16 Aug. 2017
• Late Tuesday evening, some mainstays, including Sloppy Joe’s, kept the doors open for dozens of straggling tourists.
  — Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2017
• Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in recent years along the straggling boundary, which stretches for about 1,200 miles.
  — Maria Abi-Habib and Hari Kumar, BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2018
• There were no reports of violence until the rally ended and straggling protesters confronted police, who then used tear gas to break up the crowd.
  — chicagotribune.com, 27 Aug. 2017
• The middle seat has become a critical issue for airlines as coronavirus-wary leisure travelers straggle back onto planes.
  — Justin Bachman, Bloomberg.com, 22 Oct. 2020
• The last straggling commuters heading home Thursday were treated to a Bay Area sunset of epic proportion.
  — Patrick May, The Mercury News, 28 June 2019
• Felipe Alonso Hoyos, too shy to make conversation with a woman, leans against the wooden bar with a friend, watching dancers straggle in and out.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 May 2019
• Pizza boxes were strewn about from the night before, and a few straggling musicians and associates were puttering around, dipping their feet in the infinity pool.
  — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 11 Feb. 2026
• An early winter had set in by November, and the ragged remains of the French army straggled back toward home, with thousands dying from cold, hunger and disease.
  — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 12 July 2019
• These people had crowded into, and on the top of, a few straggling passenger cars that lay uncoupled along the track, in seeming expectation that some one was to come, in due time, and take them off.
  — al, 5 June 2020
• Our research suggests that climate warming has resulted in more four-year-early straggling events that are increasingly dense, widespread and likely to leave offspring.
  — Chris Simon, The Conversation, 22 May 2025
• While lines stretched for over an hour, buses arrived in destination to Santa Clarita, with a few straggling behind in traffic for several hours.
  — Steven J. Horowitz, Billboard, 8 June 2018
• Seattle Computer Products straggled on for a few more years, but finally went under in 1985.
  — Jimmy Maher, Ars Technica, 31 July 2017