estray

Etymology

From Middle English astrai, from Anglo-Norman estray, from the Old French verb estraier. Etymological doublet with stray.

noun

1. (law) An animal that has escaped from its owner; a wandering animal whose owner is unknown. An animal cannot be an estray when on the range where it was raised, and permitted by its owner to run. A lost animal whose owner is known to the party at hand is not an estray.
2. (archaic) Stray.
   … All the day / Had been a dreary one at best, and dim / Was settling to its close, yet shot one grim / Red leer to see the plain catch its estray. 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section VIII

verb

1. (archaic) To stray.
   With other Maids to fiſh upon the Shoar; Estrays apart, and leaves her Company 1614, Samuel Daniel, Hymen's Triumph