Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb Away from the correct path or direction.
  • adverb Away from the right or good, as in thought or behavior; straying to or into wrong or evil ways.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Out of the right way or proper place, either literally or figuratively; wandering.
  • To go out of the right way; go astray; stray.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb Out of the right, either in a literal or in a figurative sense; wandering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a wrong or unknown and wrongly-motivated direction.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb far from the intended target
  • adverb away from the right path or direction

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French estraie, past participle of estraier, to stray; see stray.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English astraien or by apheresis straien, from Old French estraier ("to stray"), from late Medieval Latin of extravagari ("to wander beyond"), from Latin extra ("beyond") + vagari ("to wander, stray").

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