English
strange
Pronunciation
  • enPR: strānj, IPA: /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒ/
Adjective

strange (comparative stranger, superlative strangest)

  1. Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary.
    He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter.
    • circa 1598 William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act IV, Scene 1,
      I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?
    • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 598-601,[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_(1674)/Book_IX]
      Sated at length, ere long I might perceave
      Strange alteration in me, to degree
      Of Reason in my inward Powers, and Speech
      Wanted not long, though to this shape retain’d.
  2. Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
    I moved to a strange town when I was ten.
    • circa 1604 William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act IV, Scene 2,
      […] here is the hand and seal of the duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange to you.
    • 1955, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ISBN 0553249592, pages 48–49:
      She's probably sitting there hoping a couple of strange detectives will drop in.
  3. (physics) Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
    • 2004 Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 93:
      A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark.
  4. (math) Of an attractor: having a fractal structure.
  5. (obsolete) Belonging to another country; foreign.
    • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, London, Book 1,
      I take goyng thither [to Italy], and liuing there, for a yonge ientleman, that doth not goe vnder the kepe and garde of such a man, as both, by wisedome can, and authoritie dare rewle him, to be meruelous dangerous […] not bicause I do contemne, either the knowledge of strange and diuerse tonges, and namelie the Italian tonge […] or else bicause I do despise, the learning that is gotten […]
    • circa 1594 William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene 2,
      […] one of the strange queen’s lords.
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalms 137:4,
      How shall we sing the smallcaps Lord’s song in a strange land?
    • 1662, Samuel Pepys, Diary entry dated 27 November, 1662, in Henry B. Wheatley (editor), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, New York: Croscup & Sterling, 1893, Volume 2, Part 2, p. 377,
      I could not see the [Russian] Embassador in his coach; but his attendants in their habits and fur caps very handsome, comely men […] But Lord! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange.
  6. (obsolete) Reserved; distant in deportment.
    • circa 1596 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 1,
      Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when?
      You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?
    • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, Chapter 19, p. 253,
      She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee!
  7. (obsolete) Backward; slow.
    • 1621, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (playwright), Thierry and Theodoret, London: Thomas Walkley, Act III, Scene 1,
      […] to his name your barrennesse adds rule;
      Who louing the effect, would not be strange
      In fauoring the cause; looke on the profit,
      And gaine will quickly point the mischiefe out.
  8. (obsolete) Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
    • circa 1607 William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 3,
      I know thee well;
      But in thy fortunes am unlearn’d and strange.
  9. (legal) Not belonging to one.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

strange (stranges, present participle stranging; past and past participle stranged)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To alienate; to estrange.
  2. (obsolete, intransitive) To be estranged or alienated.
  3. (obsolete, intransitive) To wonder; to be astonished (at something).
    • 1661, Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, London: Henry Eversden, Chapter 19, p. 184,
      [these] were all the Assertions of Aristotle, which Theology pronounceth impieties. Which yet we need not strange at from one, of whom a Father saith, Nec Deum coluit nec curavit [he neither worshipped nor cared for God]:
Noun

strange (uncountable)

  1. (slang, uncountable) vagina
    • 2013 "Taming Strange" (episode of South Park TV series)
      Ike: Yeah, for my cool cool trick I'm gonna tame Foofa's strange.
      Plex: Tame mo-what?
      Ike: I can tame Foofa's strange, bro.
Strange
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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