Stray

Definition: Stray

Stray

Adjective

1. Not close together in time; "isolated instances of rebellion"; "scattered fire"; "a stray bullet grazed his thigh".

Noun

1. Homeless cat.

Verb

1. Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment; "The gypsies roamed the woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from one town to the next".

2. Wander from a direct or straight course.

3. Wander from a direct course or at random; "The child strayed from the path and her parents lost sight of her"; "don't drift from the set course".

4. Lose clarity or turn aside esp. from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking; "She always digresses when telling a story"; "her mind wanders"; "Don't digress when you give a lecture".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "stray" was first used: sometime around 1300. (references)

Electrical Engineering

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Stray

Deviation

Stray, straggle; sidle; diverge; tralineate; digress, wander; wind, twist, meander; veer, tack; divagate; sidetrack; turn aside, turn a corner, turn away from; wheel, steer clear of; ramble, rove, drift; go astray, go adrift; yaw, dodge; step aside, ease off, make way for, shy.

Adjective: deviating; Verb: aberrant, errant; excursive, discursive; devious, desultory, loose; rambling; stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag; crab-like.

Nonassemblage Dispersion

Adjective: unassembled; (see assemble; ); dispersed; Verb: sparse, dispread, broadcast, sporadic, widespread; epidemic; (general); adrift, stray; disheveled, streaming.

Unconformity

Adjective: uncomformable, exceptional; abnormal, abnormous; anomalous, anomalistic; out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element; irregular, arbitrary; teratogenic; lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton; peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious; out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run; beyond the pale of, out of the pale of; misplaced; funny.

Crosswords: Stray

Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle (The Company of Wolves; writing credit: Angela Carter; Neil Jordan)

It was probably somebody's stray dog. (The Howling; writing credit: Gary Brandner; John Sayles)

I've never met a stray. (Cats & Dogs; writing credit: John Requa; Glenn Ficarra)

He should never let himself be caught napping, never for a minute let his eye stray to the left, when for all he knows, a judge or somebody like that can be lurking somewhere to the right (Procès, Le; writing credit: Orson Welles)

Stray cat is crying so stray cat sings back (All Through The Night; performing artist: Cyndi Lauper)

Does your memory stray to a brighter sunny day (Are You Lonesome Tonight?; performing artist: Elvis Presley)

Mind started to stray, million miles away (Get Me Home; performing artist: FOXY)

These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray (New York, New York; performing artist: FRANK SINATRA)

No way your ever gonna stray me (Always Be My Baby; performing artist: Mariah Carey)

Two Waifs and a Stray (1910)

Stray Dogs (1985)

Every Stray Dog and Kid (1981)

Stray Cat Strut (performing artist: Stray Cats)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Stray Birds (reference)

• Stray Horse (Saddle Club, 100) (reference)

• Stray Voltage (reference)

• The Stray Cat Handbook (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Stray (reference)

• Stray Dogs (reference)

• Stray Bullet (reference)

• Stray Cats: Rock Tokyo (reference)

• Stray Dog (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Forever Gold: Stray Cats (reference)

• Stray Cats - Greatest Hits [EXTRA TRACKS] (reference)

• Stray Dogs (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Pretty Polly say when I was away did your fancy never stray to some new lover?. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

A stray dandy who was lounging at the end of the street made a diversion

He gathers up stray onions from the plate and heaps them on the meat and presses them in with the spatula

And I afterwards failed very narrowly three or four times of falling into their clutches, when I happened to stray at any distance without my hanger

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

Avoid direct contact with stray animals. (references)

Call your local animal control agency to remove any stray animals from your neighborhood. (references)

Call animal control to take wild or stray animals away, especially if you see an animal acting strangely. (references)

Economic History

Philippines

Both foreign and domestic investors have expressed concern about the propensity of courts to issue temporary restraining orders (TROs) and to stray beyond matters of legal interpretation into policymaking functions. (references)

Taiwan

The growth in the Taiwan pet food market can be attributed mainly to a change in attitude towards animals as pets and a subsequent shift from feeding table scrapes to stray animals to serving pet food to well-cared-for pets. (references)

Minorities

Ethiopia

More than 20 persons were injured by thrown rocks and stray bullets. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "stray": go stray ♦ stray block ♦ stray bullet ♦ stray car or two ♦ stray cat ♦ stray currents ♦ stray dog ♦ stray from ♦ stray into smb.'s place ♦ stray light ♦ stray line ♦ stray mark. Additional references.

Beginning with "stray": stray-cat.

Afrikaans

afdwaal (aberrate, go astray, stray off). (various references)

Albanian

i rrallë (curious, far between, infrequent, out of the way, rare, scarce, singular, sparse, thin, uncommon, unwonted), i rastit (adventitious, casual, chance, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incident, incidental, makeshift, occasional, odd, passing, random, scratch, transient), i humbur (dupe, faraway, forfeit, gone, lorn, loser, losing, lost, missing, strayed, waste), fëmijë i humbur, arrakat. (various references)

Arabic 

‏نظر شارد, ‏تاه, ‏تائه (devious, errant, vagrant, wandering), ‏طائش (bad, careless, flighty, foolhardy, frivolous, giddy, harebrained, hasty, heedless, impetuous, imprudent, inadvertent, inconsiderate, indiscreet, injudicious, libertine, light, light minded, light-headed, lunatic, mad, madcap, muddle-headed, popinjay, random, rash, rattle-brained, reckless, scatter-brain, scatter-brained, scatty, stunned, thoughtless, unadvised, unwise), ‏ضل (astray, err, lead astray, maunder, mislead, pervert, petering, seduce), ‏ضال (aberrant, astray, errata, erratic, lost, rogue, wandering), ‏جول (meander, range, roam, roll, rove, stalk), ‏الضال, ‏إنحرف (astrict, deflect, depart, deviate, deviate from, diverge, divert, drift, incline, jibe, jump, nose, pervert, sidetrack, skew, slew, slue, squint, swerve, swing, turn, veer), ‏أضاع (balk, dawdle, lose, miscarry, mislay, slattern), ‏شارد (errant, erratic, inattentive, runaway, scampish). (various references)

Bulgarian 

отделен (detached, discrete, disjunct, distinct, divided, independent, individual, insular, lone, odd, particular, self contained, separate, several, single, singular, solitary, unattached), изгубено животно, изгубвам се (disappear, evanesce, miscarry), бродя (range, rove, tramp, vagabond, walk, wander), единичен (individual, one track, particular, several, single, sporadic), електрически смущения, заблуден (astray, misbeliever, misguided, perverted, strayed), заблудено животно, заблуждавам се (err, go astray, wander), изгубен (gone, lost, missing), отдалечавам се (go away, go off, recede, ride away, ride off, roll away), случаен (accidental, adventitious, adventive, arbitrary, by, casual, chance, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, idle, incidental, long, lucky, occasional, odd, pickup, precarious, promiscuous, random, sporadic, unplanned, unsystematic), отплесвам се (digress, go stray, ricochet), отлъчвам се, отвличам се, отклонявам се (break, depart, deviate, digress, dissent, diverge, dodge, oblique, part, run off, swerve, swing, take off, turn aside, turn off, wander), отклонявам се от правия път (go astray, go wrong, wander), разсейвам се (roll away, wander), разсеян (absent, absent minded, diffuse, disseminated, distrait, forgetful, moony, oblivious, preoccupied, rare, scatter-brained, unmindful, vacant, wandering, wool gathering), рея се (sail), загубило се дете. (various references)

Chinese 

遊蕩 , 迷路者. (various references)

Czech

ztratit se (astray, clear up, disappear, go, go away, lose oneself, make oneself scarce), zbloudilý (astray), zbloudilé zvíře, zatoulat se (wander, wander off), zatoulaný (errant), zabloudit (go astray, lose one's way), zabìhnout se (wander off), zabìhlý, rozptyl (diffusion, dispersal, dispersion, scatter), ojedinìlý (solitary, sporadic, unique), odboèit (branch off, decline, deflect, deviate, digress, run off, strike off), náhodný (accidental, adventitious, arbitrary, casual, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, hit or miss, incidental, passing, random), bloudit (rove, wander), bloudìní, bezdomovec (displaced person, dosser, homeless). (various references)

Danish

spredning (deconcentration, devolution, dispersal, dispersion, distribution, diverging, probable error, range, regulating, scatter, scattering, shaping, span, spread, spreading, standard deviation). (various references)

Dutch

verstrooiing (absence of mind, distraction, diversion). (various references)

Esperanto

forflankiĝi (go astray, stray off), flankiĝi (go astray, stray off), devojiĝi (go astray, stray off), detemiĝi (stray from one's subject, wander from one's subject). (various references)

Farsi 

منحرف شدن (Digress, Swerve, Wander), گمراه شدن (Err, Pervert), ولگردی (Profligacy, Ramble, Tramp, Vagrancy), ولگرد (Blackgurad, Hooligan, Loafer, Prowler, Rambler, Swinger, Tramp, Vagabond), سرگردان شدن (Roil), سرگردان (Adrift, Astray, Discursive, Erratic, Gadabout, Rambler, Strafe, Straggle, Wanderer), جانوربی صاحب , اواره کردن , راه گذر. (various references)

Finnish

harhailla (roam, rove, wander), eksynyt (lost). (various references)

French

s'égarer, dévier, écarter, écartez, écartons, égaré, égarer, abandonné, écartent, animal errant, vagabonder, dispersé, dispersion (strewing), errant, inopiné, isolé (free standing, straggler), perdu, animal égaré. (various references)

Frisian

ôfdwale (aberrate, go astray, stray from one's subject, stray off, wander from one's subject). (various references)

German

streunen (roam about, to stray, wander around). (various references)

Greek 

σκέδαση (radiation), σκεδασμός, περιπλανώμενοσ (astray, rambler, roamer, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer), εκτρέπομαι (aberrate, deviate, digress, swerve, take a deflection), αποπλανώμαι (straggle), αποπλανημένοσ, αδέσποτος, τυχαίοσ (accidental, adventitious, casual, chance, circumstantial, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, occasional, random, scratch), διασπορά (diaspora, dispersion, spreading). (various references)

Hebrew 

מקרי (accidental, casual, chance, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, occasional, random), לתעות (miscarry), לאבוד (be lost, cease, die, lose, perish), לסטות (deviate, diverge, go astray, pervert, robbery, turn aside, wayward), תועה (errant, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer, wandering), אובד (lost). (various references)

Hungarian

szórványos (diffuse, sparse, sporadic), koronára visszaszálló vagyon, kóborló gyermek, kóbor (errant, maverick), eltévedt (aberrant, to be off the track, to be on the wrong side of the post), elszórt (diffuse, scattered, sparse), elkóborolt, elbitangolt, bitang jószág (waif), bitang (derelict), alkalmi (ad hoc, casual, extemporal, extemporaneous, occasional, offbeat, topical). (various references)

Indonesian

melantur (digress, stray (from a path)). (various references)

Italian

smarrirsi (aberrate, go astray, miscarry, stray off), perdersi (aberrate, disappear, go astray, stray off). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

野犬 (ownerless dog, stray dog), 喪家の狗 (feeling lost like a stray dog), 捨て犬 (stray dog), 流れ弾 (stray bullet), 流れ矢 (stray arrow), 流弾 (stray bullet), 人たる道に背く (to stray from the path of righteousness), 踏み違える (to misstep, to stray), ぐうぐう寝ちゃう (accomplice, approximately, cohort, completely exhausted, dead tired, enervated, fast, fast asleep, firmly, flabby, flexible, hanging around, hesitatingly, indecisiveness, limp, lolling, more, much, noticeably, Okinawan fortress, pulpy, remarkably, senseless, sloppy, slowly, soft, soppy, sound asleep, sound of rinsing one's mouth, splat!, steadily, tardily, tired, to be unsteady, to fall sound asleep, to reel, to shake, to stray from the right path, turning round and round), 野猫 (stray cat), 逸れ玉 (stray bullet), 野犬狩り (rounding up stray dogs), 野良猫 (alley cat, stray cat), 野良犬 (stray dog), 逸る (to be hotblooded, to be impatient, to be in high spirits, to get lost, to stray from), 逸れる　 (to get lost, to go astray, to stray turn from subject), 逸れ弾 (stray bullet), 逸れ矢 (stray arrow), 逸れ矢　 (stray arrow), 迷い子　 (lost stray child). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ひとたるみちにそむく (to stray from the path of righteousness), やけん (ownerless dog, stray dog), やけんがり (rounding up stray dogs), りゅうだん (high-explosive projectile, stray bullet), のらいぬ (stray dog), のらねこ (alley cat, stray cat), はぐる (to get lost, to stray from), ふみちがえる (to misstep, to stray), すていぬ (stray dog), それだま (stray bullet), それや (stray arrow), ぐれる (to stray from the right path), そうかのいぬ (feeling lost like a stray dog), ながれだま (stray bullet), ながれや (stray arrow), のねこ (stray cat). (various references)

Korean 

무숙자. (various references)

Manx

shaghrynagh (abberant, absent, bewildering, devious, disjointed, drifter, errant, misleading, strayer, truant, wandering), goll er shaghryn (abberate, blunder, blunder make mistake, blundering, divagate, err, straying), er shaghryn (adrift, astray, betrayed, bewildered, deviating, erring, erroneous, lost). (various references)

Pig Latin

aystray.(various references)

Portuguese

vaguear (hobo, knock about, knock around, lounge, maroon, maunder, meander, moon, ramble, range, roam, rove, straggle, trail, vagabondize, wander), perder-se (astray, disappear, go astray, lose the day, miscarry, straggle, wander), não se concentrar, extraviar-se (astray, go astray, leave out, miscarry, straggle), dispersar-se (scatter, straggle), dispersão (broadcast, dispersal, disperse, dispersion, dissipation, leakage), devanear (dream, fancy, moon, muse). (various references)

Romanian

se rãtãci (lose, lose one's way, miss one's way, wander), se depãrta (depart, drop, flit, furl, recede), se bate (scrap), se abate (deflect, deviate, diverge, swerve), pierdut (absent minded, blankly, far away, forfeit, gone, lost, missing, vague, wasted), accidental (accidental, accidentally, adventitious, arbitrary, broken, casual, casually, chance, contingent, fortuitous, fortuitously, hurt, incidental, occasional, precarious, random), aiura (ass about, drivel, ramble, rave), animal rãtãcit, copil rãtãcit, hârbar, moştenire fãrã moştenitori, abate (abbot, call away, deflect, distract, divert, straggle, swerve, turn), paraziţi atmosferici (atmospherics), vagabonda (be on the tramp, bum, hang around, mooch about, rove, run about, straggle), rãtãcit (afield, haggard, wandering, wild), rãzleţ (asunder, odd, solitary), vagabond (bum, gadabout, gypsy, hobo, landloper, mudlark, range, rogue, rover, runabout, scalawag, tramp, vagabond, vagrant), neprevãzut (extemporaneous, fortuitous, snap, unexpected, unforeseen, unlooked for). (various references)

Russian 

случайный (accidental, adventitious, aleatory, arbitrary, casual, chance, coincidental, contingent, episodic, extemporaneous, extemporary, fortuitous, haphazard, happy go lucky, hit or miss, incident, incidental, jobbing, lucky, occasional, odd, passing, promiscuous, punative, random, spurious), заблудившийся (strayed), бессвязный (delirious, disconnected, incoherent, rambling, rigmarole, skimble-skamble, unconnected), беспризорный ребенок (gutter-child, guttersnipe, waif), бездомный (bench-warmer, dosser, homeless, houseless, outcast, roofless, strayer, unhoused, waif), паразитный;блуждаюший. (various references)

Scottish

punnd (a place for securing stray cattle, a pound). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

zalutati (astray: go astray, get lost, wry), zalutao (astray, lost, strayed), zalutala životinja, lutajući (errant, peregrin, strolling, wandering). (various references)

Spanish

vagar en, perderse (be lost, fade away, fade out, fail, lose one's way, lose oneself, waste), extraviarse (aberrate, err, get lost, go astray, go wrong, lose oneself, miscarry, straggle, stray off, wander), extraviado (lost, misplaced, missing, strayed), errar (be mistaken, err, fluff, Miss, miss with, mistake, muff, roam about, wander), errante (errant, itinerant, knockabout, wandering), dispersión (breakup, dispersal, dispersion, dissipation, pattern, scatter, scattering). (various references)

Swedish

kringströvande (errant, excursive), gå vilse (go astray, lose oneself). (various references)

Turkish

serseri (adrift, beat, bum, bummer, dawdler, dosser, down and out, drifter, errant, flotsam, flotsam and jetsam, gadabout, good for nothing, hobo, hoodlum, hooligan, landloper, larrikin, layabout, lowlife, ne'er do well, ne'er-do-weel, never-do-well, no good, outcast, punk, rambler, rascal, reprobate, rogue, roguish, rounder, rover, runagate, strayed, sundowner, swag man, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, varmint, wandering, yob), sapmak (bear, deflect, detour, deviate, digress, diverge, diverge from, lapse, lead away from, oblique, sheer, sheer away, sheer from, sheer off, slant, swerve, swing, turn, turn aside, turn off, turn up, wander, wander off), sürüden ayrılan hayvan (straggler), parazit yapmak (interfere, jam), başıboş (adrift, footloose, idle, idled, rambling, roving, straggling, straggly, strayed, vagabond, vagrant), başıboş dolaşmak (divagate, loaf, loaf about, loaf around, roam about, rove, rove about, wander about), başıboş hayvan (straggler, waif), başıboş kimse, cızırtı yapmak (sizzle, splutter), cızırtılı (scratchy, sizzling, squeaky, wheezy), dolaşmak (air oneself, bat around, be afloat, become tangled, browse around, circuit, circulate, float, flow, go about, go around, go for a jaunt, go for a stroll, go for a walk, go on a jaunt, hike, itinerate, jaunt, jauntiness, kink, knot, look round, mat, mosey, perambulate, range, roam, rove, stroll, take a stroll, take a walk, travel, walk, walk about, walk around, wander), ayrılmak (apostatize, be off, be through with, break away, break up, break with, check out, come unstuck, cut loose, decamp, defect, depart, desert, deviate, disunite, divaricate, diverge, divide, divorce, divorce from, draw apart, draw away, drop out, fork, furcate, get clear of, get off, give up, graduate, hive off, lead away from, leave, mosey, move off, part, part company, part company with, part from, part with, pull away, pull out, quit, retire, revolt, revolt from, secede, segregate, separate, sever, splinter off, split, split off, split up, sunder, take one's farewell of, tear oneself away, unstuck, vacate, walk off, walk out, walk out of, withdraw), kaybolmuş kimse, yolunu kaybetmiş (disoriented, strayed), parazitli (static), rasgele (aimlessly, at a venture, at haphazard, at random, by chance, desultory, freehand, haphazard, haphazardly, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, offhand, promiscuous, random, scratch, wild), tek tük (here and there, odd, sporadic), yoldan sapmak (straggle, warp), yolunu kaybetmek (lose one's bearings, lose one's way), gezinmek (bat around, get around, go for a stroll, go for a walk, hang about, hang around, mosey, perambulate, promenade, roam, rove, rove about, stroll, take a stroll, take a walk, walk about, walk around, wander, wander about). (various references)

Ukrainian

відхилятися (bear off, deflect, deviate, diverge, incline, lapse, run off, skew, swerve, trend, turn, turn aside), випадковий (accidental, adventitious, aleatory, casual, chance, chanceful, circumstantial, coincidental, contingent, episodic, episodical, eventual, extemporary, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, happy go lucky, hit or miss, incident, occasional, occurrent, odd, pickup, promiscuous, random, unpremeditated), заблудлий (lost, strayed, wandered, wayward, wildered, will), заблудитися, бездомний (homeless, houseless, outcast, roofless, unhoused, waif). (various references)

Vietnamese 

súc vật bị lạc, tản mạn (dispersedly), ngươi bị lạc, lạc (ground-nut, monkey-nut), lác đác, bị lạc rải rác. (various references)

Welsh

cyfeiliorni (err), crwydro (roam, wander). (various references)

erro, palor. (various references)

via strata. (various references)

mestengo. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "stray": strayed, strayer, strayers, straying, strays. (additional references)

Words ending with "stray": astray, estray. (additional references)

Words containing "stray": estrayed, estraying, estrays. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Stray" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ataraxy, estray, Ostra, ostrey, sarai, Saray, sarty, satrai, seray, starah, starey, Stari, starky, starvy, stary, stayr, stoai, stra, strafy, strag, straid, strail, stran, straty, strey, strkaly, stry. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: artsy, satyr, trays.

-1 letter: arts, arty, rats, rays, ryas, star, stay, tars, tray, tsar.

-2 letters: ars, art, ays, ras, rat, ray, rya, sat, say, sty, tar, tas, try, yar.

-3 letters: ar, as, at, ay, ta, ya.

+1 letter: astray, estray, pastry, satyrs, smarty, starry, stayer, strawy, strays, stylar, styrax, swarty, trashy, wastry, yarest.

+2 letters: aroynts, ashtray, astylar, barytas, barytes, betrays, crystal, daystar, estrays, estuary, grayest, gyrates, martyrs, mastery, ostiary, psaltry, satrapy, satyric, satyrid, sectary, smartly, starchy, starkly, startsy, stayers, strayed, strayer, streaky, streamy, swarthy, trysail, tyrants, varsity, wastery, yantras, yatters, yttrias.