stray
Americanverb (used without object)
-
strays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
strayed,
past participle, past
-
straying
present participle
-
to deviate from the direct course, leave the proper place, or go beyond the proper limits, especially without a fixed course or purpose.
to stray from the main road.
-
to wander; roam.
I strayed through the maze of the forest.
-
to go astray; deviate, as from a moral, religious, or philosophical course.
to stray from the teachings of the church.
- Synonyms:
- err
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to digress or become distracted.
to stray from the main topic.
noun
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strays
plural
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a domestic animal found wandering at large or without an owner.
The humane society traps strays, spays or neuters them, and returns them to the feral colony in which they were found.
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any person or animal who is homeless or friendless.
For a popular girl, she has the oddest misfit friends—her mom says she just can’t help but collect strays.
-
a person or animal that strays.
the strays of a flock.
-
Radio. strays, static.
adjective
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straying or having strayed, as a domestic animal.
-
found or occurring apart from others or as an isolated or casual instance; incidental or occasional.
-
Radio. undesired.
stray capacitance.
verb
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to wander away, as from the correct path or from a given area
-
to wander haphazardly
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to digress from the point, lose concentration, etc
-
to deviate from certain moral standards
noun
-
-
a domestic animal, fowl, etc, that has wandered away from its place of keeping and is lost
-
( as modifier )
stray dogs
-
-
a lost or homeless person, esp a child
waifs and strays
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an isolated or random occurrence, specimen, etc, that is out of place or outside the usual pattern
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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straysimple
-
strayssimple
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have strayedperfect
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has strayedperfect
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am strayingprogressive
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are strayingprogressive
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is strayingprogressive
-
have been strayingperfect progressive
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has been strayingperfect progressive
Past
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strayedsimple
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had strayedperfect
-
was strayingprogressive
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were strayingprogressive
-
had been strayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stray
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb straien, strayen, from Old French estraier, from unrecorded Vulgar Latin extrāvagāre “to wander out of bounds”; see origin at extravagant
Explanation
Little Red Riding Hood strayed from the path and ended up getting eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. When you stray, you wander off without paying attention to where you're going, and sometimes you get in trouble. Stray can be used as a verb or as a noun. Your attention may stray when you're tired and listening to a very boring lecture. You may be the kind of person who brings home strays, the dogs and cats that have wandered away from their homes and are lost and hungry. When you're organizing your sock drawer and you've got one sock without a mate, you might find the stray sock left behind in the dryer.
Vocabulary lists containing stray
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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.
See Examples For:
A stray SpaceX rocket has crashed into the Moon, forming a crater near a famous lunar landmark and giving scientists a unique research opportunity that could help future missions.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Utility company Consolidated Edison has detected stray voltage at the site weeks after the death, a possible cause for the horse’s sudden flight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Roughly once every 100,000 years, a star in a given galaxy may stray close enough to one of these black holes to be torn apart in a tidal disruption event.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
Eventually, they used stray dogs, hoping they could detect the scent of flesh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Glory asked, blowing a stray curl away from her forehead.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
“Intimate Audrey” occasionally strays close to elevating its subject to sainthood, mostly in material regarding her unselfish work for Unicef in Somalia and Ethiopia, which Mr. Ferrer believes broke both her heart and her health.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
The album strays away from the pop genre that first put him on the charts and instead leans into a more soulful, R&B-infused sound.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2026
For casual listeners, there are other signs: Inconsistent drum patterns, bland lyrics, and a singer who never strays from the melody or lets rip on the final chorus.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
Each 11-minute episode follows mundane escapades, like hosting a movie night or getting in a hot tub, punctuated by a somewhat disturbing art style and clumsy-on-purpose animation that strays into the uncanny valley.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2025
Clipper was one of the sweetest strays at the complex.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Instead, it strayed off course and eventually reached its final resting place on the moon’s surface.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
Inflation has strayed above the Fed target for more than five years.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
And though she liked the show, she thought it strayed too far from the books.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Brought up a Catholic, Gannon-Doak admits he "strayed away from it" for a while, before "hearing God call me, with an urge to get back into it".
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
Miss Lilian’s hands strayed from her pearls to her hair and then to her dress, smoothing, twitching, tweaking, never still.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
All of them are at their best when they behave relatively normally instead of straying into caricatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
The Treasury market has been quiet lately, with 10-year debt barely straying from a yield of 4.3% in April.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
It boils down to a single, loaded question: Is BTS straying too far from K-pop in trying to woo the world?
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026
But many Cubans blame their own leaders for mismanaging the economy — and straying from the ideals of Castro’s revolution.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
The police of the division have been instructed to keep a sharp look-out for straying children, especially when very young, in and around Hampstead Heath, and for any stray dog which may be about.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
