astray
/ə'strei/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adverb:
- Away from the correct path or direction: Describes being lost or having wandered from the intended route or course.
- Into error or morally wrong behavior: Describes being led into wrongdoing, sin, or mistaken belief.
Adjective (Predicative):
- Lost or off the correct path: Used after verbs like 'go', 'lead', or 'be' to describe a state of being lost or misguided.
Usage
- The word astray is almost always used after a verb. Common verbs it follows are: go, lead, stray, fall, send, and be.
- It describes a state or result of deviation.
Examples
- Adverb / Predicative Adjective:
- The hikers went astray in the dense forest and had to call for help.
- Without proper guidance, young people can easily be led astray.
- The letter must have gone astray in the mail; it never arrived.
- The dog ran astray from the park and couldn't find its way home.
Advanced Usage
- "to lead someone astray": To cause someone to make mistakes or to behave immorally.
- The corrupt politician tried to lead the honest official astray with promises of money.
- "to go astray": To become lost, either physically or morally; to be misplaced.
- Several important files have gone astray from the archive.
- "to fall astray": To deviate from the correct path, often used in a moral or spiritual context.
- He feared his son would fall astray if he didn't have good friends.
Variants and Related Words
- Stray (verb): To wander away from a set course or area; to deviate.
- The farmer went to find the sheep that had strayed from the flock.
- Stray (adjective): Describing something that is lost or out of place.
- A stray cat wandered into our garden.
Synonyms
- Off course: Not following the planned direction.
- Amiss: Wrong or faulty in some way.
- Adrift: Floating without being moored; figuratively, lacking purpose or direction.
Related Phrases
- Lead astray: (Phrasal verb) To guide someone into error or wrongdoing.
- Bad companions led him astray, and he started skipping school.
- Go astray: (Phrase) To become lost or to deviate.
- If your calculations go astray, the entire experiment will fail.
Related Idioms
- To lead someone down the garden path: To deceive someone (similar in meaning to 'lead astray').
- He realized his business partner had been leading him down the garden path about the company's profits.
Adverb
- far from the intended target
- the arrow went wide of the mark
- a bullet went astray and killed a bystander
- away from the right path or direction
- he was led astray