Word Direct Answers

What does "strange" mean?

Strange: Of or pertaining to others; not one's own; not pertaining to one's self; not domestic. So she, impatient her own faults to see, Turns from herself, and in strange things delights. Sir J. Davies.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Not before known, heard, or seen; new. Here is the hand and seal of the duke; you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange to you. Shak.
  2. 3.Not according to the common way; novel; odd; unusual; irregular; extraordinary; unnatural; queer. "He is sick of a strange fever." Shak. Sated at length, erelong I might perceive Strange alteration in me. Milton.
  3. 4.Reserved; distant in deportment. Shak. She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee. Hawthorne.
  4. 5.Backward; slow. [Obs.] Who, loving the effect, would not be strange In favoring the cause. Beau. & Fl.
  5. 6.Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced. In thy fortunes am unlearned and strange. Shak. Note: Strange is often used as an exclamation. Strange! what extremes should thus preserve the snow High on the Alps, or in deep caves below. Waller. Strange sail (Naut.), an unknown vessel. -- Strange woman (Script.), a harlot. Prov. v.
  6. 7.-- To make it strange. (a) To assume ignorance, suspicion, or alarm, concerning it. Shak. (b) To make it a matter of difficulty. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To make strange, To make one's self strange. (a) To profess ignorance or astonishment. (b) To assume the character of a stranger. Gen. xlii.
  7. 8.Strangely. [Obs.] Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak. Shak.
  8. 9.To alienate; to estrange. [Obs.]
  9. 10.To be estranged or alienated. [Obs.]
  10. 11.To wonder; to be astonished. [Obs.] Glanvill.

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