Dictionary Definition
stray adj : not close together in time; "isolated
instances of rebellion"; "scattered fire"; "a stray bullet grazed
his thigh" [syn: isolated, scattered] n : homeless cat
[syn: alley
cat]
Verb
1 move about aimlessly or without any
destination, often in search of food or employment; "The gypsies
roamed the woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The
cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from one town
to the next"; "They rolled from town to town" [syn: roll, wander, swan, tramp, roam, cast, ramble, rove, range, drift, vagabond]
2 wander from a direct course or at random; "The
child strayed from the path and her parents lost sight of her";
"don't drift from the set course" [syn: err, drift]
3 lose clarity or turn aside especially from the
main subject of attention or course of argument in writing,
thinking, or speaking; "She always digresses when telling a story";
"her mind wanders"; "Don't digress when you give a lecture" [syn:
digress, divagate, wander]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Middle English in origin, from the Anglo-Norman and Old French verb estrayer, and the Anglo-Norman noun and adjective (a)strey, both from the Old French estraié.Pronunciation
- strā, /streɪ/, /streI/
Noun
- 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.
- The act of wandering or going astray.
- [historical] An area of common land or place administered for the use of general domestic animals, i.e. "The Stray"
Related terms
Translations
The act of wandering or going astray
Verb
Translations
Synonyms
Adjective
- To cause to stray.
- Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a stray horse or sheep.
Translations
To cause to stray
Having gone wandering, as, a stray horse or
sheep
- Finnish: eksynyt
Extensive Definition
Stray may refer to:
- A feral (abandoned or escaped) domestic animal.
- Any object or person unintentionally in the wrong place.
- 'Stray' or 'The Stray' - an area of open land in York, Harrogate, and Redcar.
- Stray FM an Independent Local Radio station based in Harrogate.
- Stray (novel) a novel by A.N. Wilson.
- Stray (UK band) - a 1966-1970s rock group from London, led by Del Bromham.
- Stray (US band) - A side project by American dark electro/industrial band Unter Null.
- nickname for American football player Michael Strahan
- An "unowned", or single, submissive participant in Pup-play.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
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