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
By driving out the horse without any belongings, he gave the impression that he was an estray, probably cropping the herbage, when disturbed by the approach of strangers.
From Up the Forked River Or, Adventures in South America by Edward Sylvester Ellis
Is she not an estray upon the world?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 by Various
Assuring himself that she was the estray, Fred looked at her bag to see the condition of that.
From The Hunters of the Ozark by Edward Sylvester Ellis
Many respectable men have suggested that our estray laws—the law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others—are deficient in their present form, and require alterations.
From Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 by Abraham Lincoln
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
