What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Gad vs Stray - What's the difference?

gad | stray |

As nouns the difference between gad and stray

is that gad is iron bar while stray is any domestic animal that has an enclosure, or its proper place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an estray.

As a verb stray is

to wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.

As an adjective stray is

having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a stray horse or sheep.

gad

English

Etymology 1

Taboo deformation of (God).

Interjection

(en interjection)
  • An exclamatory interjection roughly equivalent to 'by God', 'goodness gracious', 'for goodness' sake'.
    • 1905' '' That's the trouble -- it was too easy for you -- you got reckless -- thought you could turn me inside out, and chuck me in the gutter like an empty purse. But, by '''gad , that ain't playing fair: that's dodging the rules of the game.'' — Edith Wharton, '' House of Mirth.
    Derived terms
    * egads * egad

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Verb

    (gadd)
  • To move from one location to another in an apparently random and frivolous manner.
  • * 1852 , Alice Cary, Clovernook ....
    • This, I suppose, is the virgin who abideth still in the house with you. She is not given, I hope, to gadding overmuch, nor to vain and foolish decorations of her person with ear-rings and finger-rings, and crisping-pins: for such are unprofitable, yea, abominable.
  • *
    • Synonyms
    * gallivant
    Derived terms
    * gadabout * gaddish, gaddishness

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sharp-pointed object; a goad.
  • * 1885 , Detroit Free Press. , December 17
    • Twain finds his voice after a short search for it and when he impels it forward it is a good, strong, steady voice in harness until the driver becomes absent-minded, when it stops to rest, and then the gad must be used to drive it on again.
  • (obsolete) A metal bar.
  • * 1485 , Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur , Book XV:
    • they sette uppon hym and drew oute their swerdys to have slayne hym – but there wolde no swerde byghte on hym more than uppon a gadde of steele, for the Hyghe Lorde which he served, He hym preserved.
  • * Moxon
    • Flemish steel some in bars and some in gads .
  • A pointed metal tool for breaking or chiselling rock, especially in mining.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will go get a leaf of brass, / And with a gad of steel will write these words.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 327:
    • Frank was able to keep his eyes open long enough to check his bed with a miner's gad and douse the electric lamp
  • (dated, metallurgy) An indeterminate measure of metal produced by a furnace, perhaps equivalent to the bloom, perhaps weighing around 100 pounds.
  • * 1957 , H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry , p. 146.
    • ''Twice a day a 'gad' of iron, i.e., a bloom weighing 1 cwt. was produced, which took from six to seven hours.
  • A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling.
    • (Fairholt)
  • (UK, US, dialect) A rod or stick, such as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used to drive cattle with.
    • (Halliwell)
    (Bartlett)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    stray

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any domestic animal that has an enclosure, or its proper place and company, and wanders at large, or is lost; an estray.
  • (figuratively) One who is lost, either literally or metaphorically.
  • The act of wandering or going astray.
  • (historical) An area of common land or place administered for the use of general domestic animals, i.e. "the stray"

    • Related terms

    * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way.
  • * Denham
    • Thames among the wanton valleys strays .
  • To wander from company, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray.
  • (figurative) To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err.
  • * November 2 2014 , Daniel Taylor, " Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk
    • It was a derby that left Manchester United a long way back in Manchester City’s wing-mirrors and, in the worst moments, straying dangerously close to being their own worst enemy.
  • To cause to stray.
  • * 1591 , , V. i. 51:
    • Hath not else his eye / Strayed his affection in unlawful love,

    Synonyms

    * deviate

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Having gone astray; strayed; wandering; as, a stray horse or sheep.
  • In the wrong place; misplaced.
    • a stray comma

    Derived terms

    * stray line * stray mark

    References

    Anagrams

    * * *