Stray Meaning
/stɹeɪ/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
nounA person who is lost.
Sentence Examples
He is, as it were, a stray sheep.
The stray girl sobbed her name.
Stray dogs wander the steep narrow lanes of the old town.
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you ____ from the path, you might get lost in the forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The kind family took in a ____ cat that had been wandering around the neighborhood for several weeks.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English stray, strey, from Anglo-Norman estray, stray, Old French estrai, from the verb (see below).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"But vvhat a vvretched, and diſconſolate Hermitage is that Houſe, vvhich is not viſited by thee [God], and vvhat a VVayue, and Stray is that Man, that hath not thy Markes vpon him?"
— 1624, John Donne, “13. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 329:
"This invention relates broadly to radio communication, but more particularly to a radio receiving system used for the reception of high frequency current signals wherever they are subject to interference from "static" or strays of an untuned or aperiodic character."
— 1926, Popular Radio, volume 9, page 191:
"Because of their shortness, such signals are usually easy to distinguish from the bomb returns but, when such a stray is recorded just before the bomb return, too close to be distinguished by ear […]"
— 1942, John C. Mathisson, Radio Acoustic Ranging, page 652:
"Electromagnetic interference EMI, radio interference RI, television interference TVI, and radio frequency interference RFI, can all be described as a confusion to received radio signals due to strays and undesirable signals."
— 1976, IEEE Power Engineering Society, Nuclear Power: Health, Safety, Waste Disposal, page 20:
"Hit by a stray, but I pray that there's a hood in heaven"
— 1993, “Just Another Day”, in Black Reign, performed by Queen Latifah:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you ____ from the path, you might get lost in the forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The kind family took in a ____ cat that had been wandering around the neighborhood for several weeks.