draggle

/'drægl/

Thân thiện

The puppy got draggled after running through the muddy puddle.

Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make something wet and dirty, typically by dragging it through mud, water, or rain-soaked ground.
   • To trail or lag behind others, often in a weary or bedraggled manner.

Usage

• The verb draggle is used to describe the action of soiling or dampening an object, usually clothing or fabric, by pulling it along a wet or dirty surface. It can also describe the act of moving slowly and untidily behind a group.
• It is a transitive verb when meaning "to make wet and dirty" (e.g., She draggled her skirt). It can be intransitive when meaning "to trail behind" (e.g., The children began to draggle).

Examples

• Transitive use:
  • The hiker's long coat was draggled with mud after the storm.
  • She didn't want to draggle the hem of her expensive gown in the puddles.
• Intransitive use:
  • The tired puppy started to draggle behind its owner.
  • The last runners began to draggle as the marathon entered its final miles.

Advanced Usage

• "to be draggled": To be in a wet, dirty, and untidy state, often from being dragged.
  • After walking through the field, her dress was draggled and torn.
• The word often implies a sense of weariness, untidiness, and loss of dignity associated with the soiling or lagging.

Variants and Related Words

• Bedraggle (verb): To make something wet, dirty, and limp, often to a greater degree than draggle.
  • The refugees were bedraggled after their long journey in the rain.
• Draggled (adjective): Describing something that is wet, dirty, and untidy from being dragged.
  • He looked at his draggled trousers with dismay.

Synonyms

• Bedaub: To smear or daub with something dirty.
• Besmirch: To make dirty; to soil.
• Lag: To fall behind; to move more slowly than others.
• Trail: To drag or be drawn along behind.

Antonyms

• Clean: To make something free from dirt.
• Lead: To be at the front or to guide.
• Precede: To go in front of.

Related Phrases

• Draggle-tail (noun, archaic): An untidily dressed woman, especially one with a wet or dirty skirt.
  • The old story described the character as a poor draggle-tail.

Học thuật

Verb

1. make wet and dirty, as from rain

Từ đồng nghĩa

• bedraggle