What's the difference between astray and stray?

Astray


Definition:

  • (adv. & a.) Out of the right, either in a literal or in a figurative sense; wandering; as, to lead one astray.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The single-celled organism has four "watermarks" written into its DNA to identify it as synthetic and help trace its descendants back to their creator, should they go astray.
  • (2) The willingness to ignore their misconduct has led us all astray and increased the public's lack of trust in all journalism.
  • (3) In an article for the New York Times in 2009, Krugman wrote : "As I see it, the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth."
  • (4) It didn't lure me astray – I'm done with my youthful experimenting – but it did occur to me that it was not all that helpful to parents trying to warn their kids not to try skunk when they could sample it just by breathing the air.
  • (5) The Gijon goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar was on fine form, particularly against Ronaldo, while Real’s approach play looked lethargic and too many passes went astray.
  • (6) "Market share" and other phrases can lead you astray.
  • (7) He helped us by looking into some money for the area that had gone astray.
  • (8) "Isn't it true he has been led astray by the Tories?
  • (9) This is stuff [Isis] already has.” The Pentagon cleared up some confusion about a cache going astray on Sunday that had subsequently been destroyed in a US strike, once it had been realised it was in danger of falling into Isis hands.
  • (10) Based on a review of the literature it can be said that a main obstacle to a rational approach to prevention and health promotion in the elderly, seems to be on the one side our lack of knowledge of what constitutes effective intervention, and on the other a feeling of great urgency--which may easily lead us astray.
  • (11) But if it was not a giant mental disorder, was there a huge conspiracy that led Tamerlan and Jahar astray?
  • (12) They’re not brainwashed by American R&B or led astray by song lyrics.
  • (13) Clegg came under attack from Harriet Harman yesterday when he stood in for David Cameron at prime minister's questions while students marched on Whitehall to be told that he had been "led astray" by the Tories during the negotiations to form the coalition government.
  • (14) Memory can lead us astray, but then it is a machine with many moving parts, and consequently many things that can go awry.
  • (15) It may have been built on debt and a financial sector going quietly astray, but they enjoyed 40 successive quarters of economic growth.
  • (16) In this paper, will be described how some of the most important advances were made, and where the explorers sometimes went astray.
  • (17) Sally did not see a bank statement from Nationwide for the entire period the money was going astray.
  • (18) Amid all the uncertainty, experts argue that if a warhead had gone astray in that critical period in the early 90s, it would probably have been detonated by now.
  • (19) That she has been led astray and manipulated by the abuser.
  • (20) 'They're scared to write much, in case the letter goes astray.

Stray


Definition:

  • (a.) To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
  • (a.) To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.
  • (a.) Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
  • (v. t.) To cause to stray.
  • (v. i.) Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a strayhorse or sheep.
  • (n.) Any domestic animal that has an inclosure, or its proper place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an estray. Used also figuratively.
  • (n.) The act of wandering or going astray.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Stray bottles were thrown over the barriers towards officers to cheers and chants of: “Shame on you, we’re human too.” The Met deployed what it described as a “significant policing operation”, including drafting in thousands of extra officers to tackle expected unrest, after previous events ended in arrests and clashes with police across the centre of the capital.
  • (2) Until that point, Bravo had looked assured, often straying 30 yards off his goal-line and confident enough to try a couple of passes that many goalkeepers would consider too risky.
  • (3) Spatial distribution of the disease correlated with indirect EIA data on healthy urban population (3116 persons examined) and stray dogs (152 animals examined).
  • (4) At peak times 1,300 vehicles an hour will use the lanes, with non-Olympic motorists fined £130 if they stray into them.
  • (5) The helicopter strayed more than a mile into Turkish airspace, but crashed inside Syria after being hit by missiles fired from the jet, Turkish officials said at the time.
  • (6) Guardiola has ever-so-slightly strayed away from what has made Barcelona so brilliant now, and there are certainly questions to be asked about how Busquets-Iniesta-Xavi triumvirate has been disrupted by Cesc Fabregas.
  • (7) Lula responded by insisting that his government would not stray from its quest to protect the Amazon and appointed another high-profile environmentalist, Green party founder Carlos Minc, as his new minister.
  • (8) "Stray bullets are part of my life here," says Jessica, a 17-year-old football coach.
  • (9) Hence stray voltage may threaten farm animal health and production wherever modern animal housing is applied.
  • (10) But in 14 years, the search for international justice in Africa has strayed far from the "never again" principle, and into the murkier waters of deals and fixes.
  • (11) Bedoya then strays offside on the other side of the pitch.
  • (12) In his search for a new economic model for the paper that would take it into a secure digital future, Thompson has been experimenting with innovations that appear to stray from his corporate bunker on the 16th floor of the Times building into the editorial realm.
  • (13) Turkey has said the jet mistakenly strayed into Syrian air space on Friday, but was quickly warned to leave by Turkish authorities and was a mile inside international airspace when it was shot down.
  • (14) You made sure that Mairead "stuck to the story", checking with her at every opportunity that she wasn't going to stray, as you put it.
  • (15) The laboratories without stray light problems reported results with less instrument-to-instrument variation, the results followed a symmetrical distribution, and the mean of the results provided an accurate estimate of the absorbance of the solutions.
  • (16) Others face more niggling problems: in a recent post on the local Facebook group “Eliminate All Stray Dogs”, one resident claimed an unruly pack kept jumping on his car, destroying its windscreen wipers.
  • (17) and other species in stool specimens from stray dogs and cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  • (18) Up to 4.5 million Russians were already expected to change holiday plans after the Turkish military shot down a Russian jet that strayed into Turkish airspace on a bombing mission over Syria, and military operations against Kurdish insurgents in the south-east have added to a sense of crisis.
  • (19) Udall barely mentioned government surveillance on the campaign trail, choosing instead to mount a singular focus on female voters, rarely straying from two topics : contraception and abortion.
  • (20) The four people arrested in the Gloucestershire cull zone were held on suspicion of aggravated trespass after police responded to reports of horns being blown and individuals straying from a public footpath.