Stray1. (v.) To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
2. (v.) To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.
3. (a.) Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
4. (v. t.) To cause to stray.
5. (v. i.) Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a stray horse or sheep.
6. (n.) Any domestic animal that has an enclosure, or its proper place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an estray. Used also figuratively.
7. (n.) The act of wandering or going astray.
Thesaurus Entries
Arab, abandoned, aberrant, aberrative, abnormal, accidental, aimless, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, bat around, be absent, be in error, be mistaken, be wrong, beach bum, beachcomber, beggar, bo, bum, bummer, casual, causeless, chance, circuitous, count ties, daydream, depart, departing, derelict, designless, desultory, deviant, deviate, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, different, digress, digressive, discursive, divagate, diverge, divergent, dogie, dream, drift, driftless, dysteleological, eccentric, err, errant, erratic, excurse, excursive, fall into error, fantasy, flit, formless, freak, gad, gad about, gallivant, gamin, gamine, get sidetracked, go about, go adrift, go amiss, go astray, go awry, go the rounds, go woolgathering, go wrong, guttersnipe, haphazard, heteroclite, heteromorphic, hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, homeless, homeless waif, idler, indirect, indiscriminate, inexplicable, intimation, irregular, isolated, jaunt, knock about, knock around, labyrinthine, landloper, lapse, lazzarone, loafer, lone, losel, lost, maunder, mazy, meander, meandering, mindless, misbelieve, miscalculate, mooch, moon, mudlark, muse, nomadize, odd, out-of-the-way, peregrinate, pererrate, piker, pipe-dream, planetary, promiscuous, prowl, purposeless, ragamuffin, ragman, ragpicker, ramble, rambling, random, range, roam, roaming, rounder, rove, roving, run about, saunter, separated, serpentine, serve Mammon, shade, shapeless, shifting, single, singular, ski bum, slip, slip up, snake, snaky, sporadic, stargaze, stiff, stochastic, straggle, straggler, strain, straying, streak, street Arab, street urchin, stroll, stumble, subnormal, suggestion, sundowner, surf bum, suspicion, swagman, swagsman, swerving, tatterdemalion, tennis bum, tincture, tinge, touch, trace, traipse, tramp, trip, turn aside, turning, turnpiker, twist, twist and turn, twisting, unaccountable, undirected, unexpected, unmotivated, unnatural, urchin, vag, vagabond, vagabondize, vagrant, veering, waif, waifs and strays, walk the tracks, wander, wandering, wastrel, wayfare, wind, winding, zigzag