straggling

基本解釋

At some distance they saw Cassim's mules straggling about the rock, with great chests on their backs.
遠遠的他們就看到凱新的騾子在巖石附近散亂著。背上都托著大箱子。
The full scale of the tragedy is only now becoming apparent as helicopters track down survivors straggling towards safety.
隨著直升飛機找到零星的幸存者，這場悲劇的整體規(guī)?，F(xiàn)在才開始變得清晰。
Their bundles and baskets were gathered up, and half an hour later, when the clock-chime sounded a quarter past eleven, they were straggling along the lane which led up the hill towards their homes.
他們把他們的包裹和籃子搜集在一起，過了半小時，當(dāng)教堂的鐘聲敲響十一點一刻的時候，他們就稀稀拉拉地走上了上山的小路，走回家去。

Elsewhere, notably in Aceh at one tip of the straggling archipelago, and in Irian Jaya at the other, secessionist sentiment remains strong.
ECONOMIST: Wavering Wahid
It was a pagan desire, she thought, and it was a pagan place: a dark garden of yews and straggling roses and, at its center, the stone church, with its altar and its font and, above it all, the bells, suspended in the chill air of the belfry, heavy and still, waiting to be brought to life.
NEWYORKER: The Bell Ringer

If people straggle somewhere, they move there slowly, in small groups with large, irregular gaps between them.
If a small quantity of things straggle over an area, they cover it in an uneven or messy way.