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”).

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^[1], 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 (ʕalā ḍalāl)
• Catalan: desencaminadament (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎤᎴᎾᎯᏛ (ulenahidv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 迷途地

• Finnish: harhaan (fi)
• German: fehlgeleitet (de), abwegig (de), irregeleitet
• Japanese: 道に迷って
• Russian: заблуди́вшись (ru) (zabludívšisʹ), сби́вшись с пути́ (sbívšisʹ s putí)
• Scottish Gaelic: air seachran, air iomrall
• 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)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

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