Adjacent Words

Astray definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ASTRA'Y, adv. [a and stray. See Stray.]
Out of the right way or proper place, both in a literal and figurative sense. In morals and religion, it signifies wandering from the path of rectitude, from duty and happiness.
Before I was afflicted, I want astray. Psalms 129.
Cattle go astray when they leave their proper owners or inclosures. See Deutoronomy 22.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adv
1: away from the right path or direction; "he was led astray"
2: far from the intended target; "the arrow went wide of the mark"; "a bullet went astray and killed a bystander" [syn: wide, astray]

Merriam Webster's

adverb or adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French estraié wandering, from estraier to stray — more at stray Date: 14th century 1. off the right path or route ; straying 2. in error ; away from what is proper or desirable

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adv. & predic.adj. 1 in or into error or sin ( esp. lead astray). 2 out of the right way. Phrases and idioms: go astray be lost or mislaid. Etymology: ME f. OF estraié past part. of estraier ult. f. L extra out of bounds + vagari wander

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Astray A*stray", adv. & a. [See Estray, Stray.] Out of the right, either in a literal or in a figurative sense; wandering; as, to lead one astray. Ye were as sheep going astray. --1 Pet. ii. 25.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you are led astray by someone or something, you behave badly or foolishly because of them. The judge thought he'd been led astray by older children. PHRASE: V inflects 2. If someone or something leads you astray, they make you believe something which is not true, causing you to make a wrong decision. We drove east to Rostock, where my map led me astray. = mislead PHRASE: V inflects 3. If something goes astray, it gets lost while it is being taken or sent somewhere. Many items of mail being sent to her have gone astray. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a-stra' (ta`ah, "to wander," "to err"; planaomai, "to go astray," each carrying the idea of being lost): With one exception (Ex 23:4 "his ass going astray") used metaphorically of moral wandering, going astray in paths of error and sin, like "sheep going astray" (1Pe 2:25 the King James Version; Isa 53:6; Ps 119:176).

This wandering may be due

(1) to inherent evil (Ps 58:3);

(2) to false shepherds (Jer 50:6); contrast the beautiful and classic passage, Mt 18:12,13, the Son of man (verse 12) seeketh that which is gone astray. No word more vividly portrays sin as a straying, a separation from God. To be morally "astray" is to be "lost."

Dwight M. Pratt

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

ad. Out of the right way, wandering, in error, lost, at fault, on the wrong scent.

Moby Thesaurus

abashed, aberrant, abroad, adrift, afield, all abroad, all off, all wrong, amiss, askew, at fault, at sea, awry, badly, below the mark, beside the mark, beside the point, bewildered, bootlessly, bothered, clear, clueless, confused, corrupt, deceptive, defective, delusive, deviant, deviational, deviative, discomposed, disconcerted, dismayed, disoriented, distorted, distracted, distraught, disturbed, embarrassed, errant, erring, erroneous, erroneously, fallacious, fallaciously, false, falsely, far afield, far from it, faultful, faultfully, faultily, faulty, flawed, fruitlessly, guessing, heretical, heterodox, illogical, illusory, in a fix, in a maze, in a pickle, in a scrape, in a stew, in vain, lost, mazed, mistakenly, not right, not true, off, off the track, out, peccant, perturbed, perverse, perverted, put-out, self-contradictory, straying, to no purpose, turned around, unfactual, unfavorably, unorthodox, unproved, untrue, untruly, upset, vainly, wide, without a clue, wrong, wrongly