Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use stray in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, adjective

Stray means any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray. Example: “The alley is full of stray cats rummaging through the garbage.”

Examples of stray by meaning

nounAn article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif).

  • waifs and strays

nounAn instance of atmospheric interference.

  • Electromagnetic interference EMI, radio interference RI, television interference TVI, and radio frequency interference RFI, can all be described as a confusion to received radio signals due to strays and undesirable signals.1976, IEEE Power Engineering Society, Nuclear Power: Health, Safety, Waste Disposal, page 20

adjectiveHaving gone astray; strayed; wandering.

  • The alley is full of stray cats rummaging through the garbage.
  • The organisation fills many gaps left by the state, operating a dizzying array of services, including homes for victims of domestic violence, food banks and a shelter for stray animals.2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in the Guardian

adjectiveIn the wrong place; misplaced.

  • a stray comma
  • a stray bullet

More sentences with stray

  • The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.From the entry compel
  • Aside from a few stray flutters of laughter, the audience was silent.From the entry flutter
  • The Swiss government interned the Italian soldiers who had strayed onto Swiss territory.From the entry intern
  • The town dog-catcher operates the kennel for strays.From the entry kennel
  • In Genoa there are stray cats all over the place.From the entry all over the place
  • He's always taking in some lop-eared stray dog.From the entry lop-eared
  • Animal control will capture and bemuzzle any stray dogs.From the entry bemuzzle
  • By using a macro-ASI, we ensure a strong coupling mediated by stray fields throughout the array.2025, Renju R. Peroor, Lawrence A. Scafuri, Dmytro A. Bozhko, Ezio Iacocca, “Frequency comb in a macroscopic mechanomagnetic artificial…. From the entry mechanomagnetic
  • Nobody in the history of hip hop catch more strays than Tito Jackson.2021 June 2, @thoughtfulbae, Twitter, archived from the original on 07 Sep 2021. From the entry catch a stray
  • Jayda goes at it with Teanna Trump and Lil Baby catches a stray.2020 December 18, @MXCKdotCom, Twitter, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2022. From the entry catch a stray
  • Stray Kids' Han will be taking a break from fansignings for the time being.2019 December 15, Jenny Wa, “Han will not be attending Stray Kids fansigning for the time being”, in Allkpop, archived from the original…. From the entry fansigning
  • You are looking at the herd of springbok to your right, and you stray onto the middelmannetjie.2013, Deon Meyer, Dirt Busters: A Guide to Adventure Motorbiking, Cape Town: Tafelberg, →ISBN. From the entry middelmannetjie
  • He was still a tighty-whitey guy, I saw, unable to keep my eyes from straying.2013, Juliet Rosetti, Crazy for You: Life and Love on the Lam. From the entry tighty-whitey
  • Word to the wise: if you must tweeze solo, stick to plucking only the obvious stray hairs.2012 November 16, Adriana Ermter, “How to get the perfect eyebrows: Four reasons to enlist a professional”, in Chatelaine. From the entry tweeze
  • He pulled a stray wisp of hair from the thick braid that reached her waist.2010, Jennifer Maruno, Warbird, Napoleon Publishing, →ISBN, page 85. From the entry scissor
  • They often want to cram every stray fact and experience into their new model.2010 September 27, Malcolm Gladwell, “Small Change”, in The New Yorker. From the entry solipsist
  • Instead, he said four stray fastballs to Yankees centrefielder Brett Gardner defined his night.2009 May 15, Morgan Campbell, “Facing Yankees no walk in the park”, in Toronto Star. From the entry centrefielder
  • She spoke her mind in cateze and never let me stray far from my writing path.2009, Joanna Devrais, Hearthstories: A Modern Woman's Quest for the Essential Self, page xiii. From the entry catself
  • A few stray flecks of purged matter found their way to Ian's T-shirt.2009, Andy Behrens, Sex Drive, New York, N.Y.: Speak, →ISBN, page 112. From the entry zook
  • I see de woman go up leetle coulie for stray horse, un I follar her.2000, Frederic Remington, “Sun-Down Leflare's Warm Spot”, in John D. Seelye, editor, Stories of the Old West: Tales of the Mining Camp…. From the entry sais
  • Her eyes strayed across the flat landscape and her fingers stilled, knife in midshave down a potato.1992, Christine Dorsey, Kansas Kiss, New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 143. From the entry midshave
  • At this the farmer gets to breathing funnier, hiccuping, little stray burps roll out—uncontrolled, we’re talking here.1989 fall, Allan Gurganus, “A Hog Loves Its Life”, in Gordon Lish, editor, The Quarterly, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN…. From the entry funny
  • Ships line up on the buoys to insure they do not stray from the shipping lane.1987 July 30, Bernard E. Trainor, “Showdown in Gulf”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 Feb 2013. From the entry shipping lane
  • As with many tropical species, an occasional stray wanders into colder waters.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 103. From the entry tropical
  • They have strayed from and lost the high regard for themselves.1964 March 14, J. Donald Backenstose, “This Week's Meditation…: On Having a High Regard for Yourself”, in Lebanon Daily News, volume 92…. From the entry trashify
  • When the stray men have worked the herd, it is drove off a ways and turned loose.1958, Fay E. Ward, The Cowboy at Work: All about His Job and How He Does It, with 600 Detail Drawings by the Author, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry cut-out
  • She thought of Eleanor with her habit of giving spontaneous utterance to stray and irresponsible accusations.1957, Muriel Spark, The Comforters, New York: Avon, published 1965, Part 2, Chapter 8, p. 196. From the entry becloud
  • Cattle grids flanking the roadway prevent animals from straying from the crossing on to the railway.1953 February, “Experimental Lifting Barriers for Level Crossing”, in Railway Magazine, page 133. From the entry cattle grid
  • He probably has "listening posts" which he visits regularly in search of stray items of news.1945, Elmo Scott Watson, Jobs in Rural Journalism, page 25. From the entry listening post
  • But in national politics the Sooner State has twice strayed from the Democratic reservation (Harding and Hoover).1943 August 16, “U.S. At War: Every Democrat for Himself”, in Time. From the entry Sooner State
  • To Ethel alone she addressed a stray remark, keyed below the sound of other voices.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 23. From the entry key
  • Stray waftures of invisible gases bit his eyes and made them sting.1911, Jack London, “The Seed of McCoy”, in South Sea Tales, New York: Macmillan, page 267. From the entry wafture
  • As the ship slid out on its way a stray beam pierced the greyness.1910 May 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Conclusion”, in A Gentleman of Leisure, New York, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, published 2003…. From the entry greyness
  • “You needn’t stray off too far in doin’ it,” his partner admonished.1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter II, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published…. From the entry admonish

Meaning of stray

  1. noun Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
  2. noun A person who is lost.
  3. noun An act of wandering off or going astray.

Full definition of stray

Questions about stray in a sentence

How do you use stray in a sentence?
Stray is used as a noun, verb and adjective. For example: “The alley is full of stray cats rummaging through the garbage.”
What is a short sentence with stray?
“a stray bullet”
What does stray mean?
Stray means any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stray (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use stray in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/stray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.