strays

Noun

stray (plural strays)

1. Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
2. (figuratively, literally) 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
3. An act of wandering off or going astray.
4. (historical) An area of common land for use by domestic animals.
5. (UK, archaic) An article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif).
   • waifs and strays
6. 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

See all 14 meanings of stray