Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To make wet and dirty by dragging on the ground.
- intransitive verb To become wet and muddy by being dragged.
- intransitive verb To follow slowly; straggle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To drag or draw along on damp ground or mud, or on wet grass; drabble.
- To wet or befoul, as by dragging the garments through dew, mud, or dirt.
- To be drawn along the ground so as to become wet or dirty.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To wet and soil by dragging on the ground, mud, or wet grass; to drabble; to trail.
- intransitive verb To be dragged on the ground; to become wet or dirty by being dragged or trailed in the mud or wet grass.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb to make, or to become,
wet andmuddy bydragging along theground
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make wet and dirty, as from rain
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Some few who had no music in their souls, or no money in their pockets, dawdled about; and the old spectacle of the visitor – wife and the depressed unseasoned prisoner still lingered in corners, as broken cobwebs and such unsightly discomforts draggle in corners of other places.
Little Dorrit 2007
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Add to this a dirty, draggle-tailed chintz; long, matted hair, wandering into her eyes, and over her lean shoulders, which were once so snowy, and you have the picture of drunkenness and Mrs. Simon Gambouge.
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People go by, so drenched and draggle-tailed that I have often wondered how they found the heart to undress.
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The Angel of Light generally appeared in form� pauperis, though there was always about him a tinge of bright azure which was hardly compatible with the draggle-tailed hue of everyday poverty.
Ayala's Angel 2004
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Women with brown faces and draggle-tailed coats and turbans, and wondering eyes, and no stays, and blue beads and gold coins hanging round their necks, came to gaze, as they passed, upon the fair neat
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The preacher, instead of vexing the ears of drowsy farmers on their day of rest at the end of the week — for Sunday is the fit conclusion of an ill-spent week, and not the fresh and brave beginning of a new one — with this one other draggle-tail of a sermon, should shout with thundering voice,
Walden 2004
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So, also, on being asked by a poor writer what was the most profitable mode of exercising the pen, “My dear fellow,” replied he, good-humoredly, “pay no regard to the draggle-tailed muses; for my part I have found productions in prose much more sought after and better paid for.”
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When he'd parked his car, the ubiquitous draggle of kids had asked for money to look after it.
Fleshmarket Close Rankin, Ian 2004
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Indeed it is beneath them to meddle with such dirty draggle-tails; and whatever happens to them, it is good enough for them.
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And then there is the feeling that that kind of semi-poverty, which has in itself something of the pleasantness of independence, when it is borne by a man alone, entails the miseries of a draggle-tailed and querulous existence when it is imposed on a woman who has in her own home enjoyed the comforts of affluence.
He Knew He Was Right 2004
hernesheir commented on the word draggle
A feeble, ill-grown person.
June 25, 2011