straggling

基本解释

At some distance they saw Cassim's mules straggling about the rock, with great chests on their backs.
远远的他们就看到凯新的骡子在岩石附近散乱着。背上都托着大箱子。
The full scale of the tragedy is only now becoming apparent as helicopters track down survivors straggling towards safety.
随着直升飞机找到零星的幸存者，这场悲剧的整体规模现在才开始变得清晰。
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.
他们把他们的包裹和篮子搜集在一起，过了半小时，当教堂的钟声敲响十一点一刻的时候，他们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.