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stray

Pronunciation: /stɹeɪ/

The English word “stray” has 14 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
  2. A person who is lost.
  3. An act of wandering off or going astray.
  4. An area of common land for use by domestic animals.
  5. An article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif).
  6. An instance of atmospheric interference.
  7. A casual or offhand insult.
  8. A submissive that has not committed to submit to any particular dominant, particulary in petplay.

verb

  1. To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
  2. To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray.
  3. To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
  4. To cause to stray; lead astray.

adjective

  1. Having gone astray; strayed; wandering.
  2. In the wrong place; misplaced.

Etymology

From Middle English stray, strey, from Anglo-Norman estray, stray, Old French estrai, from the verb (see below).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.