go astray vs lose the thread

go astray

verb
  • To become lost or mislaid. 

  • To be undesirable or unhelpful. 

  • To come to believe an untruth. 

  • To behave in an adulterous manner. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, astray. 

  • To develop bad habits; to behave improperly or illegally. 

lose the thread

verb
  • To get distracted and lose track of something (one's train of thought, a conversation). 

How often have the words go astray and lose the thread occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )