to stray from the right course: to wander off and lose the way, or to be led off it
At its heart this word pictures someone who has left the path and no longer knows where they are. The most basic picture is physical: a person lost in open country, a stray animal that has drifted from the flock, a thirsty traveler circling in the desert. From that picture the word stretches in two directions that share the same shape. It can describe a body that has lost its footing, the lurching of someone too drunk to walk a straight line. And it can describe the heart that has lost its way, a person or a whole nation that has drifted from God and from what is right.
The same word also has a pointed active edge: not just to wander, but to make someone else wander. This is the word the prophets reach for when they accuse Israel's leaders, false prophets, and idols of pulling the people off the road. The one who leads astray is more blameworthy than the one who simply gets lost, and the Bible holds them to account for it.
What unites every use is the idea of deviation from a known, right course, whether a literal road, sober steps, or the way God has marked out. The reader should let the surrounding verse decide which shade is in view, because the same form can mean an ox loose in a field or a people far from their God.