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Hobble vs Straggle - What's the difference?

hobble | straggle | Related terms |

Hobble is a related term of straggle.


As nouns the difference between hobble and straggle

is that hobble is short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off while straggle is the act of straggling.

As verbs the difference between hobble and straggle

is that hobble is to fetter by tying the legs; to restrict (a horse) with hobbles while straggle is to stray from the road, course or line of march.

hobble

English

Noun

  • (en noun) (usually in plural )
  • Short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off.
  • An unsteady, off-balance step.

    • Synonyms

    * tether (rope)

    Verb

  • To fetter by tying the legs; to restrict (a horse) with hobbles.
    • (Charles Dickens)
  • To walk lame, or unevenly.
  • * Dryden
    • The friar was hobbling the same way too.
  • (figurative) To move roughly or irregularly.
  • * Jeffreys
    • The hobbling versification, the mean diction.
  • To perplex; to embarrass.

    • Derived terms

    * hobble skirt * hobbly * unhobble

    straggle

    English

    Verb

    (straggl)
  • To stray from the road, course or line of march.
    • He straggled away from the crowd and went off on his own.
  • To wander about; ramble.
  • * L'Estrange
    • The wolf spied out a straggling kid.
  • To spread at irregular intervals.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=7 citation , passage=Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs
  • 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.
  • * Mortimer
    • Trim off the small, superfluous branches on each side of the hedge that straggle too far out.
  • To be dispersed or separated; to occur at intervals.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • straggling pistol shots
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
    • They came between Scylla and Charybdis and the straggling rocks.

    Derived terms

    * (noun ) straggler * (adjective ) stragglingly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of straggling.
    • (Carlyle)