Word.ws English Dictionary

straying

straying is the present participle and gerund of stray.

Meaning of stray

Verb

stray (third-person singular simple present strays, present participle straying, simple past and past participle strayed)

  1. (intransitive) 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
  2. (intransitive) To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray.
  3. (intransitive) 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...
  4. (transitive) 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...

See all 14 meanings of stray

Noun

straying (countable and uncountable, plural strayings)

  1. The act of one who strays; deviation or sin, often sexual infidelity.
    • The soul is described as a dove who once nested in God's protective shade, and her strayings from the straight and narrow are portrayed as a descent into the defiling world of corporeality[…]2002, Adena Tanenbaum, The Contemplative Soul

Forms of straying

pluralstrayings

Questions about straying

What does straying mean?
Straying means the act of one who strays; deviation or sin, often sexual infidelity.
What is straying the present participle and gerund of?
Straying is the present participle and gerund of stray.
What part of speech is straying?
Straying is a noun.
What is the plural of straying?
The plural of straying is strayings.

Words near straying in the dictionary

  1. strayers
  2. strayest
  3. strayeth
  4. Strayhorn
  5. Strayhorns
  6. straying
  7. strayings
  8. straylight
  9. strayling
  10. straylings
  11. strays

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straying (page history and authors); stray (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “straying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/straying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.