stray
/stɹeɪ/
stray noun: any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray. Also the ellipsis of stray bullet.
Noun
stray (plural strays)
- Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
- A person who is lost.
- But vvhat a vvretched, and diſconſolate Hermitage is that Houſe, vvhich is not viſited by thee [God], and vvhat a VVayue, and Stray is that Man, that hath not thy Markes vpon him?1624, John Donne, “13. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 329
- An act of wandering off or going astray.
- An area of common land for use by domestic animals.
- An article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif).
- waifs and strays
- An instance of atmospheric interference.
- This invention relates broadly to radio communication, but more particularly to a radio receiving system used for the reception of high frequency current signals wherever they are subject to interference from "static" or strays of an untuned or aperiodic character.1926, Popular Radio, volume 9, page 191
- Because of their shortness, such signals are usually easy to distinguish from the bomb returns but, when such a stray is recorded just before the bomb return, too close to be distinguished by ear […]1942, John C. Mathisson, Radio Acoustic Ranging, page 652
- A casual or offhand insult.
- A submissive that has not committed to submit to any particular dominant, particulary in petplay.
- Antonyms:
- collared
Verb
stray (third-person singular simple present strays, present participle straying, simple past and past participle strayed)
- To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
- Thames among the wanton valleys strays.1642, John Denham, Cooper's Hill
- To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray.
- To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
- November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk
It was a derby that left Manchester United a long way back in Manchester City’s wing-mirrors and, in the worst moments, straying dangerously close to being their own worst...
- November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk
- To cause to stray; lead astray.
- Hath not else his eye / Strayed his affection in unlawful love,c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- To ease myself I was compelled to leave my basket behind me, trusting to return and find it, if I should ever reach safety and discover on what pathless hill I had been strayed.1899, John Buchan, No Man's Land
Adjective
stray (comparative more stray or strayer, superlative most stray or strayest)
- Having 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
- In the wrong place; misplaced.
- a stray comma
- a stray bullet
Also used as
stray is also the ellipsis of stray bullet.
stray meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Nepali and Tagalog
stray in Hindi
- to wander from a direct course
- भटकना bhaṭaknā
stray in Bengali
- বিপথগামী
stray in Nepali
- भट्किएको, भट्किने, भट्काउन
stray in Tagalog
- having gone astray
- ligaw
More languagesFewer languages
- stray in Arabic
- ضَلَّ ḍalla
- stray in Thai
- จรจัด jɔɔn-jàt
Examples of stray in a sentence
- The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
- Aside from a few stray flutters of laughter, the audience was silent.
- The Swiss government interned the Italian soldiers who had strayed onto Swiss territory.
Antonyms of stray
Forms of stray
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | strays |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | strays |
| present participle | straying |
| past participle | strayed |
| past | strayed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more stray |
| comparative | strayer |
| superlative | most stray |
| superlative | strayest |
Origin of stray
From Middle English stray, strey, from Anglo-Norman estray, stray, Old French estrai, from the verb (see below).
From Middle English strayen, partly from Old French estraier, from Vulgar Latin via strata, and partly from Middle English strien, streyen, streyȝen (“to spread, scatter”), from Old English strēġan (“to strew”).
From Middle English stray, from the noun (see above).
Words formed from stray
- catch a stray
- strayer
- unstraying
- nonstray
- stray bullet
- stray dog
- straylight
- stray line
- strayling
- stray mark
Phrases with stray
Words that rhyme with stray
Questions about stray
- 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.
- What is stray in Hindi?
- Stray in Hindi is भटकना (bhaṭaknā). See Stray meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is stray?
- Stray can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce stray?
- Stray is pronounced /stɹeɪ/.
- What is the plural of stray?
- The plural of stray is strays.
Words near stray in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stray (page history and authors); stray (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stray (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stray.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.