estray

[ ih-strey ]

noun
  1. a person or animal that has strayed.

  2. Law. a domestic animal, as a horse or a sheep, found wandering or without an owner.

verb (used without object)
  1. Archaic. to stray.

Origin of estray

1
1250–1300; Middle English astrai<Anglo-French estray, derivative of Old French estraier to stray

Words Nearby estray

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use estray in a sentence

  • And a health to the one away, Who drifts down careless Italy, God's wanderer and estray!

    Songs from Vagabondia | Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey
  • The smaller seemed a mere estray, a spray blown down by the recent gale.

  • A rescue party had come in search of the estray, and they were soon brought with rejoicing home.

    French Classics | William Cleaver Wilkinson
  • Fred Godfrey was almost in sight of his home, when he was both pleased and alarmed by coming upon an estray horse.

    Wyoming | Edward Sylvester Ellis
  • Assuring himself that she was the estray, Fred looked at her bag to see the condition of that.

    The Hunters of the Ozark | Edward S. Ellis

British Dictionary definitions for estray

estray

/ (ɪˈstreɪ) /


noun
  1. law a stray domestic animal of unknown ownership

Origin of estray

1
C16: from Anglo-French, from Old French estraier to stray

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012