stray
/stɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.74 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any domestic animal that lacks an enclosure, proper place, or company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray.
noun
An act of wandering off or going astray.
noun
An area of common land for use by domestic animals.
noun
An article of movable property, of which the owner is not known (see waif).
British usage; Archaic
noun
An instance of atmospheric interference.
noun
A submissive that has not committed to submit to any particular dominant, particulary in petplay.
Example Sentences
- "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?"
- "waifs and strays"
- "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."
- "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 […]"
- "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."
- "catch a stray"
Etymology
From Middle English stray, strey, from Anglo-Norman estray, stray, Old French estrai, from the verb (see below).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
strays (plural)
strays (present, singular)
straying (participle, present)
strayed (participle, past)
strayed (past)
more stray (comparative)
strayer (comparative)
most stray (superlative)
strayest (superlative)