Astray
//əˈstɹeɪ// adv
adv ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Adverb
- 1 Away from the proper path; in a wrong or unknown direction.
"Go, set the storm-winds free, / And sink their ships or scatter them astray, / And strew their corpses forth, to weltering waves a prey."
- 2 Away from what is right and good; into error or evil.
Adverb
- 1 away from the right path or direction wordnet
- 2 far from the intended target wordnet
Example
More examples"I have gone astray somewhere in my calculations."
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”).
Related phrases
More for "astray"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.