STRAY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Stray

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adjective

Stray adj. Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a strayhorse or sheep.

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.

verb

Stray v. t. To cause to stray. (Obs.)

Stray v. i. (past & past part. strayed; pres. part. straying)

To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way. "Thames among the wanton valleys strays."

To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray. "Now, until the break of day, Through this house each fairy stray." "A sheep doth very often stray."

Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err. "We have erred and strayed from thy ways." "While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray."

Synonyms: To deviate; err; swerve; rove; roam; wander.

noun

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. "Seeing him wander about, I took him up for a stray."

The act of wandering or going astray. (R.)

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Etymology of 'Stray'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stray" Quotes from Famous Books

... played by the owner being blindfolded and taking a position on hands and knees—"all fours." The dialogue is the same as given above, and the gathering in of the sheep by Jacky Lingo the same, except that the players do not line up behind him. They simply stray over the ground when he takes them from the fold. When all are scattered in this way, they begin to cry, "Baa-a! baa-a!" and the owner, still on all fours and blinded, tries to catch them. The first one caught ...

— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft

... is Spirit, realized everywhere in unfolding Nature. We are a part of Nature—we, too, are Spirit. When Moses commands his people that they must return the stray animal of their enemy to its rightful owner, we behold a great man struggling to benefit humanity by making them recognize the laws of Spirit. We are all one family—we can not afford to wrong or harm even ...

— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... who were the best mounted, immediately set off in pursuit of them, desiring Swinton to proceed with the caravan, and they would drive on the cattle and join him. They galloped off as well as the horses could gallop, and perceived the stray horses and oxen still at full speed, as if they were chased by the lions. They followed in the direction, but it was now so dark that they were guided only by the clatter of their hoofs and their shoes in the distance; and after a chase of four or five miles they had lost all vestiges of them, ...

— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... The greatest epic poets and satirists have always transcended rules to follow "Nature's light"; Pope, over-topping them all, has "still corrected Nature as she stray'd" (pp. 19, 21). But perhaps Harte's most successful attempt to elevate The Dunciad comes in section two of his poem. Unlike Dryden, in whose Discourse the account of the "progress" of satire is confined almost exclusively ...

— An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad • Walter Harte

... this time, with regard to theology. I was not consciously in any revolt against the strict faith in which I had been brought up, but I could not fail to be aware of the fact that literature tempted me to stray up innumerable paths which meandered in directions at right angles to that direct strait way which leadeth to salvation. I fancied, if I may pursue the image, that I was still safe up these pleasant lanes if I did not stray far enough to lose sight of the main road. If, for instance, it had ...

— Father and Son • Edmund Gosse

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