estray

estray [ih-strey] ExamplesWord Origin noun

1. a person or animal that has strayed.
2. Law. a domestic animal, as a horse or a sheep, found wandering or without an owner.

verb (used without object)

3. Archaic. to stray.

Origin of estray 1250–1300; Middle English astrai Anglo-French estray, derivative of Old French estraier to stray Examples from the Web for estray Historical Examples of estray

That would mean, that a lost horse had been killed or an estray steer.

The Sleuth of St. James’s Square

Melville Davisson Post

A man can always recognize his estray, and when she is recognized she will come to heel.

The Branding Iron

Katharine Newlin Burt

But such an estray, such a piece of flotsam, was Audrey, that she could not help him out.

Audrey

Mary Johnston

She desired to convert some one, to recover some estray, to reform some wretch.

Stories by American Authors, Volume 6

Various

Supposing him to have belonged to the old Count’s stud of foreign horses, we led him back as an estray.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

British Dictionary definitions for estray estray noun

1. law a stray domestic animal of unknown ownership

Word Origin for estray C16: from Anglo-French, from Old French estraier to stray