Stray

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stray \Stray\, v. t.
     To cause to stray. [Obs.] --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Stray \Stray\, a. [Cf. OF. estrai['e], p. p. of estraier. See
     {Stray}, v. i., and cf. {Astray}, {Estray}.]
     Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a strayhorse or
     sheep.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Stray line} (Naut.), that portion of the log line which is
        veered from the reel to allow the chip to get clear of the
        stern eddies before the glass is turned.
  
     {Stray mark} (Naut.), the mark indicating the end of the
        stray line.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stray \Stray\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Strayed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Straying}.] [OF. estraier, estraer, to stray, or as adj.,
     stray, fr. (assumed) L. stratarius roving the streets, fr. L.
     strata (sc. via) a paved road. See {Street}, and {Stray}, a.]
     1. To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out
        of the way.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Thames among the wanton valleys strays. --Denham.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove
        at large; to roam; to go astray.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Now, until the break of day,
              Through this house each fairy stray.  --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A sheep doth very often stray.        --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or
        rectitude; to err.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We have erred and strayed from thy ways. --??? of
                                                    Com. Prayer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              While meaner things, whom instinct leads,
              Are rarely known to stray.            --Cowper.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: To deviate; err; swerve; rove; roam; wander.
          [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stray \Stray\, n.
     1. Any domestic animal that has an inclosure, or its proper
        place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an
        estray. Used also figuratively.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Seeing him wander about, I took him up for a stray.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The act of wandering or going astray. [R.] --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  stray
       adj : not close together in time; "isolated instances of
             rebellion"; "scattered fire"; "a stray bullet grazed
             his thigh" [syn: {isolated}, {scattered}]
       n : homeless cat [syn: {alley cat}]
       v 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"; "They rolled from town to
            town" [syn: {roll}, {wander}, {swan}, {tramp}, {roam}, {cast},
             {ramble}, {rove}, {range}, {drift}, {vagabond}]
       2: 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" [syn: {err}, {drift}]
       3: lose clarity or turn aside especially 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" [syn: {digress}, {divagate}, {wander}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  208 Moby Thesaurus words for "stray":
     Arab, abandoned, aberrant, aberrative, abnormal, accidental,
     aimless, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, bat around, be absent,
     be in error, be mistaken, be wrong, beach bum, beachcomber, beggar,
     bo, bum, bummer, casual, causeless, chance, circuitous, count ties,
     daydream, depart, departing, derelict, designless, desultory,
     deviant, deviate, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious,
     different, digress, digressive, discursive, divagate, diverge,
     divergent, dogie, dream, drift, driftless, dysteleological,
     eccentric, err, errant, erratic, excurse, excursive,
     fall into error, fantasy, flit, formless, freak, gad, gad about,
     gallivant, gamin, gamine, get sidetracked, go about, go adrift,
     go amiss, go astray, go awry, go the rounds, go woolgathering,
     go wrong, guttersnipe, haphazard, heteroclite, heteromorphic,
     hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, homeless, homeless waif, idler,
     indirect, indiscriminate, inexplicable, intimation, irregular,
     isolated, jaunt, knock about, knock around, labyrinthine,
     landloper, lapse, lazzarone, loafer, lone, losel, lost, maunder,
     mazy, meander, meandering, mindless, misbelieve, miscalculate,
     mooch, moon, mudlark, muse, nomadize, odd, out-of-the-way,
     peregrinate, pererrate, piker, pipe-dream, planetary, promiscuous,
     prowl, purposeless, ragamuffin, ragman, ragpicker, ramble,
     rambling, random, range, roam, roaming, rounder, rove, roving,
     run about, saunter, separated, serpentine, serve Mammon, shade,
     shapeless, shifting, single, singular, ski bum, slip, slip up,
     snake, snaky, sporadic, stargaze, stiff, stochastic, straggle,
     straggler, strain, straying, streak, street Arab, street urchin,
     stroll, stumble, subnormal, suggestion, sundowner, surf bum,
     suspicion, swagman, swagsman, swerving, tatterdemalion, tennis bum,
     tincture, tinge, touch, trace, traipse, tramp, trip, turn aside,
     turning, turnpiker, twist, twist and turn, twisting, unaccountable,
     undirected, unexpected, unmotivated, unnatural, urchin, vag,
     vagabond, vagabondize, vagrant, veering, waif, waifs and strays,
     walk the tracks, wander, wandering, wastrel, wayfare, wind,
     winding, zigzag