“strayed” is a form of
stray
/stɹeɪ/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms strays straying strayed strayer strayest
- noun Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
- noun (literally or figuratively) A person who is lost.
- noun An act of wandering off or going astray.
- noun (historical) An area of common land for use by domestic animals.
- noun (UK, law, archaic) An article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif). “waifs and strays”
- noun (radio) An instance of atmospheric interference.
- noun (slang) A casual or offhand insult.
- noun (BDSM) A submissive that has not committed to submit to any particular dominant, particulary in petplay.
- verb (intransitive) To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
- verb (intransitive) To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray.
- verb (intransitive) To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
- verb (transitive) To cause to stray; lead astray.
- adjective Having gone astray; strayed; wandering. “The alley is full of stray cats rummaging through the garbage.”
- adjective In the wrong place; misplaced. “a stray comma”
Synonyms
roll wander swan tramp roam cast ramble rove range drift vagabond err digress divagate isolated
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English stray, strey, from Anglo-Norman estray, stray, Old French estrai, from the verb (see below).
From Middle English strayen, partly from Old French estraier, from Vulgar Latin via strata, and partly from Middle English strien, streyen, streyȝen (“to spread, scatter”), from Old English strēġan (“to strew”).
From Middle English stray, from the noun (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way. Thames among the wanton valleys strays. Denham.
- verb To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.
- verb To cause to stray. [Obs.] Shak.
- adjective Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a strayhorse or sheep. Stray line (Naut.), that portion of the log line which is veered from the reel to allow the chip to get clear of the stern eddies before the glass is turned.
Etymology [OF. estraier, estraer, to stray, or as adj., stray, fr. (assumed) L. stratarius roving the streets, fr. L. strata (sc. via) a paved road. See Street, and Stray, a.]
Etymology [Cf. OF. estraié, p.p. of estraier. See Stray, v. i., and cf. Astray, Estray.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stray”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details