different between scurry vs straggle

English

Etymology

Perhaps from hurry-skurry, a reduplication of hurry.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sk??r(?)
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sk??i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): (with the "Hurry-furry" merger) /?sk??i/
• Rhymes: -?ri
• Hyphenation: scur?ry

Verb

scurry (third-person singular simple present scurries, present participle scurrying, simple past and past participle scurried)

1. To run with quick light steps, to scamper.
   • 1964, William Golding, Lord of the Flies

     Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth.

Synonyms

• (run with quick light steps): scamper
• (do things quickly): hurry, zoom; see also Thesaurus:rush

Derived terms

• ascurry
• scurry away
• scurry off

Translations

Noun

scurry (plural scurries)

1. A dash.
   • 1845, Sporting Magazine (volume 5, page 25)

     Found a fox in Deerstone, and after a great deal of music, and a scurry or two round the wood, went away over Whigford Down, but he was too far before them to make any more quick music […]

English

Etymology

From Middle English straglen, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st?æ?l?/
• Rhymes: -æ??l
• Hyphenation: strag?gle

Verb

straggle (third-person singular simple present straggles, present participle straggling, simple past and past participle straggled)

1. To stray from the road, course or line of march.

   He straggled away from the crowd and went off on his own.

2. To wander about; ramble.
3. To spread at irregular intervals.
4. To escape or stretch beyond proper limits, as the branches of a plant; to spread widely apart; to shoot too far or widely in growth.

   • Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.

5. To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals.
   • They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.

Derived terms

• (noun) straggler
• (adverb) stragglingly

Translations

Noun

straggle (plural straggles)

1. An irregular, spread-out group.
2. An outlier; something that has strayed beyond the normal limits.
   • 1858 Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia

     Nevertheless there is a straggle of pungent sense in it, — like the outskirts of lightning, seen in that dismally wet weather, which the Royal Party had.