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Synonyms

go astray

Idioms  

  1. Wander off the right path or subject; also, wander into evil or error. For example, It was hard to follow the lecturer's gist, since he kept going astray, or The gang members led him astray, and he ended up in court. This expression alludes to sheep or other animals that stray from the rest of the flock. Indeed, Handel's oratorio Messiah (1741) has this chorus: “All we like sheep have gone astray, Every one to his own way.” [c. 1300]

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.

If the digging phase is where ideas are found, it is also where many people go astray.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

Some good news about China's relations with the other world superpower would not go astray.

From BBC • Nov. 15, 2023

“I didn’t want my family to go astray and be no good to the world.”

From New York Times • May 23, 2023

A draft can go astray and lose the majority.

From Washington Post • May 3, 2022

He stretched out his hand and found another hand with two rings on the same finger about to go astray in the darkness.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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.