estray
Americannoun
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a person or animal that has strayed.
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Law. a domestic animal, as a horse or a sheep, found wandering or without an owner.
verb (used without object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of estray
1250–1300; Middle English astrai < Anglo-French estray, derivative of Old French estraier to stray
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Throughout the past year, we offered real solutions to the Forest Service for the Gila estray problem. Those solutions would address the immediate issue, provide long-term resolution and would be humane.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2023
In case he had been called in his professional capacity–for people were being born in Comanche, as elsewhere–it would be exceedingly embarrassing to him to have the authorities lay hands on him as an estray.
From Claim Number One by Ogden, George W. (George Washington)
My enemies took advantage of my position, and drove my cattle from my own corn pile and put them into the estray pound.
From The Mormon Menace The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite by Lewis, Alfred Henry
The estray Winds are wanton with his locks.
From The Masque of the Elements by Scheffauer, Herman George
If she really was an estray, she had missed two milkings—that of the previous night and the morning that succeeded.
From The Hunters of the Ozark by Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
