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Glite Dictionary
🚶 To wander 🐾 Without a home 🐾 A lost animal 🎈 Scattered 💬 To digress
stray

stray

34 2.5
An animal, usually a cat or dog, that has no home
  • noun
  • /streɪ/
: animal callejero
  • If I brought home another stray, my husband would kill me.

And we had litters, strays in every closet, you know, got them spayed, neutered, all that stuff.

Examples

  • Not long after they arrived, two cats and a dog appeared, strays who walked out of the forest and stayed.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I really care about the way stray dogs are treated.

  • We have a stray dog on the field.

    Babe (1995)

  • I don't feed the stray cat at all.

  • Link thinks Rhett is a stray cat.

  • Ever since she was a little girl, she couldn't leave a stray abandoned.

    The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

  • Father Tim glanced around for a stray dog or someone walking by.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I can't just adopt every stray who comes to my attention.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • "Somebody has to rescue strays and find them homes," Quinn said without looking behind her.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The stray dog waited by the side of the road, hoping someone would take it home.

Synonyms

stray cat
vsstray
12 1.3

A cat that has no owner and lives outside

is an animal that wandered away from home and is temporarily lost
alley cat
vsstray
8 2.9

A cat with no home that lives on the streets

is an animal that wandered away from home and is temporarily lost

Antonyms

pet
759 1.0

An animal kept at home for company and enjoyment

Compounds

stray cat
12 1.3

A cat that has no owner and lives outside

How Independent

feral
2 5.7
stray
34 2.5
pet
759 1.0

Surface Forms

stray singular
strays plural

Etymology

Stray comes from an old word meaning 'to wander', and you can see it in astray ('off the path'), so a stray animal is one that has wandered away from its home.