Library / English Dictionary

STRAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An animal that has strayed (especially a domestic animal)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("stray" is a kind of...):

domestic animal; domesticated animal (any of various animals that have been tamed and made fit for a human environment)

Derivation:

stray (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

stray ((of an animal) having no home or having wandered away from home)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not close together in time

Example:

a few stray crumbs

Synonyms:

isolated; stray

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

sporadic (recurring in scattered and irregular or unpredictable instances)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of an animal) having no home or having wandered away from home

Example:

a stray dog

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

lost (no longer in your possession or control; unable to be found or recovered)

Derivation:

stray (an animal that has strayed (especially a domestic animal))

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking

Example:

Don't digress when you give a lecture

Synonyms:

digress; divagate; stray; wander

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "stray" is one way to...):

tell (let something be known)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

Example:

They rolled from town to town

Synonyms:

cast; drift; ramble; range; roam; roll; rove; stray; swan; tramp; vagabond; wander

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "stray" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

drift; err; stray (wander from a direct course or at random)

wander (go via an indirect route or at no set pace)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stray"):

maunder (wander aimlessly)

gad; gallivant; jazz around (wander aimlessly in search of pleasure)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

stray (an animal that has strayed (especially a domestic animal))

strayer (someone who strays or falls behind)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Wander from a direct course or at random

Example:

don't drift from the set course

Synonyms:

drift; err; stray

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "stray" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

cast; drift; ramble; range; roam; roll; rove; stray; swan; tramp; vagabond; wander (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

strayer (someone who strays or falls behind)

Credits

 Context examples: 

During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She appeared quite heart-broken over the discovery, but recovered her spirits by coiling down tackles and halyards and all stray ropes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Everybody's health was proposed, from Mr. Laurence, who was considered their special patron, to the astonished guinea pig, who had strayed from its proper sphere in search of its young master.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But for the stray brown on his muzzle and above his eyes, and for the splash of white hair that ran midmost down his chest, he might well have been mistaken for a gigantic wolf, larger than the largest of the breed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The quietness of the game made it particularly eligible for Mr. Woodhouse, who had often been distressed by the more animated sort, which Mr. Weston had occasionally introduced, and who now sat happily occupied in lamenting, with tender melancholy, over the departure of the poor little boys, or in fondly pointing out, as he took up any stray letter near him, how beautifully Emma had written it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

For I have already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious animals, upon my first arrival; 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.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A moment later he was straying away again from his mother.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Oh, how had I strayed so far away!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But you said we were children, and I said it was impossible, for you, and we have strayed away from the point.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)