Also 6 strey, 6 pl. stras. See also STRAIF. [Two formations: (1) a. AF. stray, estrai, verbal noun f. AF., OF. estraier STRAY v.2; (2) f. STRAY v.2]
I. 1. Law. A domestic animal found wandering away from the custody of its owner, and liable to be impounded and (if not redeemed) forfeited: = ESTRAY sb. (For waifs and strays see WAIF.)
[1228. in Mem. Ripon (Surtees), I. 57. Et habent catalla felonum,… et wrek et weyf, stray, curiam suam et cognicionem de falso judicio.]
1498–9. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 194. Rec. 12 d. pro una ove vocata a hog capta pro 1 le stray in de (sic) Hemyngburgh.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 29. And if no man come within the yere and the day and to make suffycient proue that the catell is his than it is forfayte to the lorde as a strey.
15[?]. Order for Swans, § 20, in Archæologia, XXXII. 427. If the Maister of the Swannes, or his Deputy, do seaze or take vp any Swannes as strayes for the Kings Maiestie.
1598. Manwood, Laws Forest, xv. 86. [The unclaimed beasts] were taken and seised by the Officers of the Forrest, to the vse of the king, as Strayes of the Forrest.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., I. ii. (1600), C ij b. The Lord of the soile ha’s all wefts and straies here, ha’s he not?
a. 1634. Coke, Inst., IV. (1648), 280. No Fowle can be a stray but a Swan.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4893/4. A … Horse, and a very little Bay-Nag, were taken up as Strays.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, V. 335. Some intermeddler still is on the watch To drive him back, and pound him, like a stray Within the pinfold of his own conceit.
1808. Sporting Mag., XXXI. 25. Cattle or horses, which, under the denomination … of strays or damage-feasant, are impounded by the Lord of the Manor.
b. transf.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. x. 27. Heere’s the Lord of the soile come to seize me for a stray, for entering his Fee-simple without leaue.
1597. Deloney, Gentle Craft, I. xv. Wks. (1912), 134. If that your heart be fled away, And it be taken for a Stray.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xiii. 130. Leopoldus Duke of Austria … as being Lord of the soil, seised on this Royall stray [‘this loose lion’ i.e., Richard I.].
1713. C’tess Winchilsea, Misc. Poems, 259.
| No; shou’d I as a Stray be found, | |
| And seiz’d upon forbidden Ground. |
2. An animal that has strayed or wandered away from its flock, home or owner.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 478/2. Stray beest þat goethe a-stray, vagula.
1543. in Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII., XVIII. II. 118. For drywyn the mor for stras iiij men iij days … to met and wagys iijs. ijd.
c. 1550. Sir J. Cheke, Matt. xviii. 13. Wold not he leave nijnti and nijn [sheep] on ye hilles, and go to seek ye strai.
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iv. 98. A youthfull Shepheard … Missing that morne a sheepe out of his Fold, Carefully seeking round to finde his stray.
1792. Horsley, Serm. (1816), III. xl. 224. Just as the owner of a large flock is solicitous for the recovery of a single stray.
1797. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., Trav. T. (1799), I. 203. Anxiously had she sought the brood, and most carefully had she replaced the little stray.
1887. F. Francis, Jr. Saddle & Mocassin, 161. One of our steers … that got driven off with a bunch of strays which the San Simon boys was taking back.
1899. Speaker, 23 Dec., 309/2. The sheep are folded—all but three ewes a-missing—Davie … speaks in a disconsolate voice of the three strays in the mountain.
† b. A person who wanders abroad; one who runs from home or employment. Obs.
1557. Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 163. At Bacchus’ feast none shall her mete … nor gasyng in an open strete, nor gaddyng as a stray.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Stray, a … Person that is run away from his Discipline, &c.
c. fig. One who has gone astray in conduct, opinion, etc.
1605. Sylvester, Urania, xliii. Anon from error’s mazes Keeping th’ unsteady, calling back the straies. Ibid. (1614), Little Bartas, 987. The Spirit … Which brings the straies home to Thy holy Fold.
1691. Shadwell, Scowrers, V. 53. No pow’r but Love could thus call back a stray, From all the crooked Paths, to the right way.
1791. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 187. Nor is Heaven such a toy, as to be gained for a song, whatever the strayes of religion think.
1788. D. Gilson, Serm. Pract. Subj., ix. 254. Is it [the Church] only to be an open Common—for the reception of every Stray?
d. A homeless, friendless person; an ownerless dog or cat. Also in the phrase waifs and strays: see WAIF.
1649. Valentine & Orson, ix. 43. They uttered forth many reproachful words against him, saying, that … he was but a found stray, poore, base, without any knowne Parents or Friends.
1864. [F. W. Robinson], Mattie, II. 78. A stray whom no one would claim as child, sister, friend.
1889. C. D. Warner, in Harper’s Mag., March, 545/2. There is also a school for strays and truants, under private auspices as yet, which re-enforces the public schools in an important manner.
1892. Daily News, 2 April, 6/6. Greater facilities are now offered than formerly in conveying the strays to the Home [for Lost Dogs].
e. Something that has wandered from its usual or proper place; something separated from the main body; a detached fragment, an isolated specimen.
1798. Sophia Lee, Canterb. T., Young Lady’s T., II. 208. It is a stray of my own; composed when I was a little rustic, wandering in the woods.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, I. 252. The keys, will sometimes be found, with other strays, in that goodly receptacle.
1866. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., 220. Such dead things … As the sea feeds on, wreck and stray And castaway.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 111. It is certainly not found in the Gulf of Mexico, unless as a stray.
1891. Stevenson, Let. W. C. Angus, April, Wks. 1912, XXV. 70. If you will collect the strays of Robin Fergusson, fish for material, collect any last re-echoing gossip, command me to do what you prefer.
† f. collect. A number of stray beasts; a body of stragglers from an army; fig. those who are astray from the faith. Obs.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 120. Strike vp our Drummes, pursue the scatter’d stray.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. vi. 53. Restore with me Religion and Discipline to the ancient splendor therof…; reduce the stray, enlighten our ignorance, polish our rudenesse.
1717. Addison, Ovid’s Metam., Transf. Battus. [He] cried out, ‘Neighbour, hast thou seen a stray Of bullocks and of heifers pass this way?’
3. Electr. (See quot. 1912.)
1901. Westm. Gaz., 16 Dec., 6/3. The general impression in America is … that Marconi has been premature in announcing his success…. Thomas Edison … says, ‘Marvellous! marvellous! but let us not forget that there are such things as electric strays.’
1912. Nature, 21 Nov., 345/2. Due to atmospheric causes, there is [sic] generally audible in the telephone receiver clicks and noises commonly spoken of as atmospherics or strays.
II. † 4. The action of straying or wandering.
For o strai, or (the) stray, out of stray see ASTRAY adv.
a. 1300–. [see ASTRAY adv.].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 6258. Lokis well to þe listis, þat no lede passe! If any stert vpon stray, strike hym to dethe.
c. 1400. 26 Pol. Poems, iv. 14. Stoken in presoun as best fro stray.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 478/2. Stray, or a-stray, vagacio, palacio.
1530. Palsgr., 277/1. [In ‘Table of Substantives’] Stray wandring, au large.
1535. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 7 § 2. If … any maner of beaste or quycke cattell … come into any of the said forestes by strayes theffe stolen or otherwise.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. i. 212. I would not from your loue make such a stray, To match you where I hate.
1614. W. B., Philos. Banquet (ed. 2), 121. Yet in his youth was he accessary to the errour of his yeeres, following the whole sway and stray of youth.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado, 10. Lasse it is nothing for maides now adaies For which of them (though modest) hath not straies.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test. To the Prince xxxv. As long as these, and Riuers all else-where, Their moulten Crystall poure by crooked strayes Into the Maine.
1793. Gentl. Mag., Oct., 913/2. [Art.] A Naturalist’s Stray.
5. The right of allowing cattle to stray and feed on common land. north. Also stray of rabbits (see quot. 1877).
1736. F. Drake, Eboracum, I. vii. 240. Land … over which the poor freemen of each ward have a particular stray for their cattle from Michaelmas to Lady-day.
1776. Foston Incl. Act, 4. Right of stray, or other right.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Stray, a right of depasturing on commons.
1880. Spectator, 21 Aug., 1065. The mountain land over which the tenants have had for generations a right of stray for their cattle.
b. A piece of unenclosed land on which there is a common right of pasture: = COMMON sb. 5.
At Harrogate, ‘The Stray’ is the name of a large piece of grass land round which the principal houses are built.
1889. Rev. R. Wheatley, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 843/2. The eight hundred acres, more or less, in six different ‘strays’ without the walls [of York], belonging to the four ancient wards, and on which freemen have exclusive right to depasture their cattle.
6. Naut. Deviation (of a sounding-line) from the perpendicular: = STRAY-LINE 2. Also = STRAY-LINE 1; in Comb. stray-mark, ‘the mark at the junction of the stray and log lines’ (Adm. Smyth).
1628. Digby, Voy. Mediterr. (Camden), 91. Sounding from a shippe in a forcible gale is very vncertaine, because of the much stray of the line.
