What's the difference between stay and stray?

Stay


Definition:

  • (n.) A large, strong rope, employed to support a mast, by being extended from the head of one mast down to some other, or to some part of the vessel. Those which lead forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship.
  • (v. i.) To stop from motion or falling; to prop; to fix firmly; to hold up; to support.
  • (v. i.) To support from sinking; to sustain with strength; to satisfy in part or for the time.
  • (v. i.) To bear up under; to endure; to support; to resist successfully.
  • (v. i.) To hold from proceeding; to withhold; to restrain; to stop; to hold.
  • (v. i.) To hinde/; to delay; to detain; to keep back.
  • (v. i.) To remain for the purpose of; to wait for.
  • (v. i.) To cause to cease; to put an end to.
  • (v. i.) To fasten or secure with stays; as, to stay a flat sheet in a steam boiler.
  • (v. i.) To tack, as a vessel, so that the other side of the vessel shall be presented to the wind.
  • (v. i.) To remain; to continue in a place; to abide fixed for a space of time; to stop; to stand still.
  • (v. i.) To continue in a state.
  • (v. i.) To wait; to attend; to forbear to act.
  • (v. i.) To dwell; to tarry; to linger.
  • (v. i.) To rest; to depend; to rely; to stand; to insist.
  • (v. i.) To come to an end; to cease; as, that day the storm stayed.
  • (v. i.) To hold out in a race or other contest; as, a horse stays well.
  • (v. i.) To change tack; as a ship.
  • (n.) That which serves as a prop; a support.
  • (n.) A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.
  • (n.) Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.
  • (n.) Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.
  • (n.) Hindrance; let; check.
  • (n.) Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety.
  • (n.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Overall length of stay found in this study (14.02 days) is considerably higher than Indian optimum.
  • (2) The standard varies from modest to lavish – choose carefully and you could be staying in an antique-filled room with your host's paintings on the walls, and breakfasting on the veranda of a tropical garden.
  • (3) A total of 1,268 patients admitted to hospital wards were kept under surveillance by one observer throughout their stay in hospital.
  • (4) We are better off in.” Out campaigners have claimed that the NHS could be badly hit by a decision to stay in the EU.
  • (5) Eighty-five per cent of newly appointed judges in France are women because the men stay away.
  • (6) In this way, we tried to find out how the patients experience the treatment and stay on the Unit, what is most helpful in solving their problems and what are, in their opinion, the direct gains of hospitalization.
  • (7) "If older people do not stay informed about the changes and take action, there is a danger that they will end up paying more unnecessarily."
  • (8) In Phase 2 (two minutes after injection) all parameters return to their control values ; except CVP which stays elevated.
  • (9) Enright said: “We call on the home secretary and chair of IICSA [the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse] to engage actively and urgently to find a way forward that secures the confidence of survivors and provides the inquiry’s legal team with the resources and support they need to deliver justice and truth that survivors deserve.” Stein said his clients were “deeply disatisfied” with aspects of how the inquiry had been conducted but called for Emmerson to stay, adding: “I urge the home secretary to seek to find a way in which his valuable contribution can be maintained”.
  • (10) Read more After Monday’s launch at 7.30am (11.30pm GMT), the taikonauts will dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, where they will spend about a month, testing systems and processes for space stays and refuelling, and doing scientific experiments.
  • (11) Silvio Berlusconi's government is battling to stay in the eurozone against mounting odds – not least the country's mountain of state debt, which is the largest in the single currency area.
  • (12) Approximately 16,000 people were diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in 2012 but were not given the treatment they needed to stay alive and prevent the spread of the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
  • (13) While ITV1's Harry Hill and the final series of BBC1's Gavin and Stacey will stay put, Sky1 did manage to secure US drama House, starring Hugh Laurie, from Channel Five, paying an estimated £500,000 an episode.
  • (14) After filming, he stayed on in the Middle East for several weeks to travel.
  • (15) Patients identified sources of stress associated with their ICU stay, yet most (76%) rated their ICU experience positively.
  • (16) To be faced with not being able to stay with or even be near their baby is inconceivable."
  • (17) Long-stay psychiatric in-patients in South Glamorgan were reviewed using the MRC Needs for Care assessment.
  • (18) Make Quinn stay with B613 I think it would be difficult to bring her back to the fold at Pope and Associates (unless they’re playing the long con and her infiltration of B613 is part of the plan), but her anger would be well utilized against her former coworkers.
  • (19) The majority of them were able to perceive a connection between their worsened skin condition and the acute psychosocial constellation during their brief stay at home.
  • (20) They’re staying home,” Cruz declared in his speech.

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.