astray

astray

English

Etymology

From Middle English astraien or by apheresis straien, from Old French estraier (“to stray”), from late Medieval Latin extravagari (“to wander beyond”), from Latin extra (“beyond”) + vagārī (“to wander, stray”).[1]

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈstɹeɪ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Adverb

astray

1. In a wrong or unknown and wrongly-motivated direction.
   • 1907, Virgil, “1.X”, in Edward Fairfax Taylor, transl., The Æneid of Virgil‎, London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.:

     Go, set the storm-winds free, / And sink their ships or scatter them astray, / And strew their corpses forth, to weltering waves a prey.

Derived terms

• go astray
• lead astray

Related terms

• stray
• estray

Translations

in a wrong direction

Arabic: بِضَلَال‎ (biḍalāl), عَلَى ضَلَال‎ (ʿalā ḍalāl) Catalan: desencaminadament (ca) Cherokee: ᎤᎴᎾᎯᏛ (ulenahidv) Chinese: Mandarin: 迷途地 Finnish: harhaan German: fehlgeleitet (de), abwegig (de), irregeleitet Japanese: 道に迷って Russian: заблуди́вшись (ru) (zabludívšisʹ), сби́вшись с пути́ (sbívšisʹ s putí) Spanish: perdido (es), extraviado (es) Swedish: vilse (sv), på villovägar

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: (please verify) заблуден (bg) (zabluden), (please verify) залутан (bg) (zalutan)

References

1. astray in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Further reading

• astray in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• astray at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “astray”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• 'Straya, Straya, atrays, tayras, yartas, yatras