From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stray \Stray\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Strayed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Straying}.] [OF. estraier, estraer, to stray, or as adjective, stray, fr. (assumed) L. stratarius roving the streets, fr. L. strata (sc. via) a paved road. See {Street}, and {Stray}, adjective]
1. To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
Thames among the wanton valleys strays. --Denham.
2. To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.
Now, until the break of day, Through this house each fairy stray. --Shak.
A sheep doth very often stray. --Shak.
3. Figuratively, to wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
We have erred and strayed from thy ways. --??? of Com. Prayer.
While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray. --Cowper.
Syn: To deviate; err; swerve; rove; roam; wander.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: unable to find your way; "found the straying sheep"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
164 Moby Thesaurus words for "straying": Wanderjahr, aberrancy, aberrant, aberration, abnormal, abroad, adrift, afoot and lighthearted, all abroad, all off, all wrong, amiss, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, askew, astray, at fault, awry, bend, beside the mark, bias, branching off, bumming, circuitousness, circumforaneous, corner, corrupt, crook, curve, deceptive, declination, defective, delusive, departure, detour, deviance, deviancy, deviant, deviation, deviational, deviative, deviousness, different, digression, discursion, discursive, distorted, divagation, divagatory, divarication, divergence, divergent, diversion, dogleg, double, drift, drifting, eccentric, errant, errantry, erratic, erring, erroneous, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, fallacious, false, faultful, faulty, flawed, flitting, floating, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, formless, fugitive, gadding, gypsy-like, gypsyish, hairpin, heretical, heteroclite, heterodox, heteromorphic, hoboism, illogical, illusory, indirection, irregular, itineracy, itinerancy, landloping, meandering, migrational, migratory, nomad, nomadic, nomadism, not right, not true, obliquity, off, off the track, out, peccant, peregrination, pererration, perverse, perverted, ramble, rambling, ranging, roam, roaming, rove, roving, self-contradictory, shapeless, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, skew, slant, straggling, stray, strolling, subnormal, sweep, swerve, swerving, swinging, tack, traipsing, transient, transitory, transmigratory, turn, turning, twist, unfactual, unnatural, unorthodox, unproved, untrue, vagabond, vagabondage, vagabondia, vagabondism, vagrancy, vagrant, variation, veer, wandering, wanderlust, warp, wayfaring, wide, wrong, yaw, zigzag
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