Stray

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (intransitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Stray, v. i. [OF. estraier, estraer, to stray, or as adj., stray, fr. (assumed) L. stratarius roving the streets, fr. L. strata (sc. via) a paved road. See Street, and Stray, a.].

•  To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.  [1913 Webster]

  "Thames among the wanton valleys strays."  [1913 Webster]
•  To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.  [1913 Webster]

  "Now, until the break of day,
  Through this house each fairy stray."  [1913 Webster]

  "A sheep doth very often stray."  [1913 Webster]
•  Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.  [1913 Webster]

  "We have erred and strayed from thy ways."  [1913 Webster]

  "While meaner things, whom instinct leads,
  Are rarely known to stray."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- To deviate; err; swerve; rove; roam; wander.

Stray, v. t. 

 To cause to stray.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Stray, a. [Cf. OF. estraié, p. p. of estraier. See Stray, v. i., and cf. Astray, Estray.].

 Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a strayhorse or sheep.  [1913 Webster]

Stray line (Naut.), that portion of the log line which is veered from the reel to allow the chip to get clear of the stern eddies before the glass is turned. -- Stray mark (Naut.), the mark indicating the end of the stray line.

Stray, n. 

•  Any domestic animal that has an inclosure, or its proper place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an estray. Used also figuratively.  [1913 Webster]

  "Seeing him wander about, I took him up for a stray."  [1913 Webster]
•  The act of wandering or going astray.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Stray, v., n., & adj.
--v.intr.
1 wander from the right place; become separated from one's companions etc.; go astray.
2 deviate morally.
3 (as strayed adj.) that has gone astray.
--n.
1 a person or thing that has strayed, esp. a domestic animal.
2 (esp. in pl.) electrical phenomena interfering with radio reception.
--adj.
1 strayed or lost.
2 isolated; found or occurring occasionally (a stray customer or two; hit by a stray bullet).
3 Physics wasted or unwanted (eliminate stray magnetic fields).

Derivative

strayer n.

Etymology

ME f. AF & OF estrayer (v.), AF strey (n. & adj.) f. OF estrai{eacute} (as ASTRAY)

THESAURUS

Stray

Arab, abandoned, aberrant, aberrative, abnormal, accidental, aimless, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, bat around, be absent, be in error, be mistaken, be wrong, beach bum, beachcomber, beggar, bo, bum, bummer, casual, causeless, chance, circuitous, count ties, daydream, depart, departing, derelict, designless, desultory, deviant, deviate, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, different, digress, digressive, discursive, divagate, diverge, divergent, dogie, dream, drift, driftless, dysteleological, eccentric, err, errant, erratic, excurse, excursive, fall into error, fantasy, flit, formless, freak, gad, gad about, gallivant, gamin, gamine, get sidetracked, go about, go adrift, go amiss, go astray, go awry, go the rounds, go woolgathering, go wrong, guttersnipe, haphazard, heteroclite, heteromorphic, hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, homeless, homeless waif, idler, indirect, indiscriminate, inexplicable, intimation, irregular, isolated, jaunt, knock about, knock around, labyrinthine, landloper, lapse, lazzarone, loafer, lone, losel, lost, maunder, mazy, meander, meandering, mindless, misbelieve, miscalculate, mooch, moon, mudlark, muse, nomadize, odd, out-of-the-way, peregrinate, pererrate, piker, pipe-dream, planetary, promiscuous, prowl, purposeless, ragamuffin, ragman, ragpicker, ramble, rambling, random, range, roam, roaming, rounder, rove, roving, run about, saunter, separated, serpentine, serve Mammon, shade, shapeless, shifting, single, singular, ski bum, slip, slip up, snake, snaky, sporadic, stargaze, stiff, stochastic, straggle, straggler, strain, straying, streak, street Arab, street urchin, stroll, stumble, subnormal, suggestion, sundowner, surf bum, suspicion, swagman, swagsman, swerving, tatterdemalion, tennis bum, tincture, tinge, touch, trace, traipse, tramp, trip, turn aside, turning, turnpiker, twist, twist and turn, twisting, unaccountable, undirected, unexpected, unmotivated, unnatural, urchin, vag, vagabond, vagabondize, vagrant, veering, waif, waifs and strays, walk the tracks, wander, wandering, wastrel, wayfare, wind, winding, zigzag

ROGET THESAURUS

Stray

Dispersion

N nonassemblage, dispersion, dispersion, disjunction, divergence, aspersion, scattering, dissemination, diffusion, dissipation, distribution, apportionment, spread, respersion, circumfusion, interspersion, spargefaction, affusion, waifs and estrays, flotsam and jetsam, disjecta membra waveson, unassembled &c (assemble), dispersed, sparse, dispread, broadcast, sporadic, widespread, epidemic, adrift, stray, disheveled, streaming, sparsim, here and there, passim.

Unconformity

N unconformity, nonconformity, unconformity, disconformity, unconventionality, informality, abnormity, abnormality, anomaly, anomalousness, exception, peculiarity, infraction of law, breach, of law, violation of law, violation of custom, violation of usage, infringement of law, infringement of custom, infringement of usage, teratism, eccentricity, bizarrerie, oddity, je ne sais quoi, monster, monstrosity, rarity, freak, freak of Nature, weirdo, mutant, rouser, snorter, individuality, idiosyncrasy, originality, mannerism, aberration, irregularity, variety, singularity, exemption, salvo, nonconformist, nondescript, character, original, nonesuch, nonsuch, monster, prodigy, wonder, miracle, curiosity, flying fish, black sheep, black swan, lusus naturae, rara avis, queer fish, mongrel, random breed, half-caste, half-blood, half-breed, metis, crossbreed, hybrid, mule, hinny, mulatto, tertium quid, hermaphrodite, phoenix, chimera, hydra, sphinx, minotaur, griffin, griffon, centaur, saggittary, kraken, cockatrice, wyvern, roc, dragon, sea serpent, mermaid, merman, merfolk, unicorn, Cyclops, men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, teratology, fish out of water, neither one thing nor another, neither fish nor fowl, neither fish flesh nor fowl nor good red herring, one in a million, one in a way, one in a thousand, outcast, outlaw, off the beaten track, oasis, uncomformable, exceptional, abnormal, abnormous, anomalous, anomalistic, out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element, irregular, arbitrary, teratogenic, lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton, peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious, out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run, beyond the pale of, out of the pale of, misplaced, funny, unusual, unaccustomed, uncustomary, unwonted, uncommon, rare, curious, odd, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, strange, monstrous, wonderful, unexpected, unaccountable, outre, out of the way, remarkable, noteworthy, queer, quaint, nondescript, none such, sui generis, unfashionable, fantastic, grotesque, bizarre, outlandish, exotic, tombe des nues, preternatural, denaturalized, heterogeneous, heteroclite, amorphous, mongrel, amphibious, epicene, half blood, hybrid, androgynous, androgynal, asymmetric, adelomorphous, bisexual, hermaphrodite, monoclinous, qualified, singular, unique, one-of-a-kind, newfangled, novel, non-classical, original, unconventional, unheard of, unfamiliar, undescribed, unprecedented, unparalleled, unexampled, unconformably, except, unless, save barring, beside, without, save and except, let alone, however, yet, but, once in a blue moon, once in a million years, Int, what on earth!, what in the world!, What the devil!, Holy cow!, Can you top that?, Sacre bleu, never was seen the like, never was heard the like, never was known the like, I could hardly believe it, I saw it, but I didn't believe it.

Deviation

VB alter one's course, deviate, depart from, turn, trend, bend, curve, swerve, heel, bear off, gybe, wear, intervert, deflect, divert, divert from its course, put on a new scent, shift, shunt, draw aside, crook, warp, stray, straggle, sidle, diverge, tralineate, digress, wander, wind, twist, meander, veer, tack, divagate, sidetrack, turn aside, turn a corner, turn away from, wheel, steer clear of, ramble, rove, drift, go astray, go adrift, yaw, dodge, step aside, ease off, make way for, shy, fly off at a tangent, glance off, wheel about, face about, turn to the right about, face to the right about, waddle, go out of one's way, lose one's way.

N deviation, swerving, obliquation, warp, refraction, flection, flexion, sweep, deflection, deflexure, declination, diversion, digression, depart from, aberration, divergence, zigzag, detour, divagation, wandering, vagrancy, evagation, bypaths and crooked ways, byroad, sidling, knight's move at chess, deviating, aberrant, errant, excursive, discursive, devious, desultory, loose, rambling, stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag, crab-like, astray from, round about, wide of the mark, to the right about, all manner of ways, circuitously, obliquely, sideling, like the move of the knight on a chessboard.