estray

noun /ə.stɹeɪ/

1. An animal that has escaped from its owner; a wandering animal whose owner is unknown. An animal cannot be an estray when on the range where it was raised, and permitted by its owner to run. A lost animal whose owner is known to the party at hand is not an estray.

2. Stray.

   archaic

   [...] All the day / Had been a dreary one at best, and dim / Was settling to its close, yet shot one grim / Red leer to see the plain catch its estray.

Where it comes from

From Middle English astrai, from Anglo-Norman estray, from the Old French verb estraier. Etymological doublet with stray.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry estray (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← estavelleestre →

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