ERR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Err

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/ɛr/ /ər/ Listen

verb

Err v. i. (past & past part. erred; pres. part. erring)

To wander; to roam; to stray. (Archaic) "Why wilt thou err from me?" "What seemeth to you, if there were to a man an hundred sheep and one of them hath erred."

To deviate from the true course; to miss the thing aimed at. "My jealous aim might err."

To miss intellectual truth; to fall into error; to mistake in judgment or opinion; to be mistaken. "The man may err in his judgment of circumstances."

To deviate morally from the right way; to go astray, in a figurative sense; to do wrong; to sin. "Do they not err that devise evil?"

To offend, as by erring.

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Etymology of 'Err'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Err" Quotes from Famous Books

... err on the side of conciseness. "We believe them because we cannot prove them," was the truthful reply of a student in Physics to the question, "Why do we believe Newton's Laws of Motion?" Or sometimes an essential transition is omitted; "At the period ...

— Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India • Alice B. Van Doren

... in the sun; they should be raked over two or three times a day. Or, if the weather is wet, they may be placed in the dry-house in a good draught at about 70 degrees F. In an artificial drying if the heat becomes too great the nuts will be rancid, as the oil-cells will burst: so better err on the side of underheating than overheating. If left out of doors, cover carefully to protect from dew. The crates for outdoor drying are placed on trestles in some California groves, in order that the air may circulate through the nuts. This is ...

— Walnut Growing in Oregon • Various

... with intention I have err'd, No other plea I have, But, Thou art good; and goodness still ...

— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... of Hinduism, as it has been said of zoology, that you can prove anything if you merely collect facts which support your theory and not those which conflict with it. Hence many distinguished writers err by overestimating the phase which specially interests them. For one the religious life of India is fundamentally monotheistic and Vishnuite: for another philosophic Sivaism is its crown and quintessence: a third maintains with equal truth that all forms ...

— Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

... his genius, often overlooked. He had a desire to know all manner of men; he had the noble curiosity of Montaigne; this it was, along with his human sympathy, that led him to rough it in emigrant voyages and railroad trips across the plains. It was this characteristic, unless I err, the lack of which in "Prince Otto" gives it a certain rococo air: he was consciously fooling in it, and felt the need of a solidly mundane footing. Truth to human nature in general, and that lesser truth which means accurate photography—his books ...

— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton

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