astray
advUS /əˈstɹeɪ/
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”).
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.1907, Virgil, “1.X”, in Edward Fairfax Taylor, transl., The Æneid of Virgil, London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.:
2
Away from what is right and good; into error or evil.
- Derived terms
- go astray, lead astray