Adjacent Words

Erratic definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ERRAT'IC, a. [L. erraticus, from erro, to wander.] Wandering; having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination.
1. Moving; not fixed or stationary; applied to the planets, as distinguished from the fixed stars.
2. Irregular; mutable.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior"; "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next" [syn: erratic, fickle, mercurial, quicksilver]
2: having no fixed course; "an erratic comet"; "his life followed a wandering course"; "a planetary vagabond" [syn: erratic, planetary, wandering]
3: likely to perform unpredictably; "erratic winds are the bane of a sailor"; "a temperamental motor; sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn't"; "that beautiful but temperamental instrument the flute"- Osbert Lancaster [syn: erratic, temperamental]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin erraticus, from erratus, past participle of errare Date: 14th century 1. a. having no fixed course ; wandering <an erratic comet> b. archaic nomadic 2. transported from an original resting place especially by a glacier <an erratic boulder> 3. a. characterized by lack of consistency, regularity, or uniformity <erratic dieting> <keeps erratic hours> b. deviating from what is ordinary or standard ; eccentric <an erratic genius> Synonyms: see strange • erratical adjective • erratically adverb • erraticism noun II. noun Date: circa 1623 one that is erratic; especially an erratic boulder or block of rock

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 inconsistently variable in conduct, opinions, etc. 2 uncertain in movement. Phrases and idioms: erratic block Geol. a large rock carried from a distance by glacial action. Derivatives: erratically adv. Etymology: ME f. OF erratique f. L erraticus (as ERR)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Erratic Er*rat"ic, n. 1. One who deviates from common and accepted opinions; one who is eccentric or preserve in his intellectual character.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Erratic Er*rat"ic, a. [L. erraticus, fr. errare to wander: cf. F. erratique. See Err.] 1. Having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination; wandering; moving; -- hence, applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars. The earth and each erratic world. --Blackmore. 2. Deviating from a wise of the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; strange; queer; as, erratic conduct. 3. Irregular; changeable. ``Erratic fever.'' --Harvey. Erratic blocks, gravel, etc. (Geol.), masses of stone which have been transported from their original resting places by the agency of water, ice, or other causes. Erratic phenomena, the phenomena which relate to transported materials on the earth's surface.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is erratic does not follow a regular pattern, but happens at unexpected times or moves along in an irregular way. Argentina's erratic inflation rate threatens to upset the plans. = unpredictable ADJ • erratically Police stopped him for driving erratically. ADV

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Wandering, roving, rambling, nomadic. 2. Moving, planetary. 3. Irregular, eccentric, abnormal.

Foolish Dictionary

Full of mistakes. (See ERR)

Moby Thesaurus

aberrant, aberrative, abnormal, adrift, afloat, agnostic, aimless, alternating, ambiguous, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, bizarre, broken, capricious, careening, casual, catchy, chancy, changeable, changeful, changing, character, choppy, circuitous, crackpot, crank, crankish, cranky, crotchety, curving, departing, desultory, deviable, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, dicey, different, digressive, directionless, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinuous, discursive, disjunct, disordered, disorderly, dispersed, disproportionate, divagatory, divaricate, divergent, diversified, diversiform, dizzy, dotty, doubtful, doubting, dubious, eccentric, equivocal, erose, errant, exceptional, excursive, extraordinary, fast and loose, fey, fickle, fitful, flake, flaky, flickering, flighty, flitting, fluctuant, fluctuating, formless, freak, freakish, frivolous, funny, giddy, gratuitous, guttering, halting, haphazard, herky-jerky, hesitant, hesitating, heteroclite, heteromorphic, hit-or-miss, idiocratic, idiosyncratic, iffy, immethodical, impetuous, impulsive, incalculable, inchoate, incoherent, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indemonstrable, indirect, indiscriminate, infirm, intermittent, intermitting, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, jagged, jerky, kinky, kook, kooky, labyrinthine, lurching, maggoty, mazy, meandering, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen, moody, motley, mutable, nonconformist, nonstandard, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, nut, nutty, odd, oddball, orderless, out-of-the-way, outlandish, patchy, peculiar, planetary, planless, pluralistic, polysemous, promiscuous, quaint, queer, quirky, ragged, rambling, random, recluse, restless, rough, roundabout, roving, scatterbrained, scrappy, screwball, screwy, senseless, serpentine, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, singular, skeptical, snaky, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, sporadic, spotty, staggering, straggling, straggly, strange, strange duck, stray, straying, subnormal, swerving, systemless, touch-and-go, turning, twisted, twisting, unaccountable, unarranged, uncertain, unclassified, unconfirmable, uncontrolled, unconventional, unconvinced, undependable, undirected, undisciplined, undivinable, unequable, unequal, uneven, unfixed, unforeseeable, ungraded, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unnatural, unordered, unorganized, unorthodox, unpersuaded, unpredictable, unprovable, unregular, unreliable, unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsorted, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsure, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, ununiform, unusual, unverifiable, vacillating, vagarious, vagrant, vague, variable, variegated, variform, various, varying, veering, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wacky, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, weird, weirdo, whimsical, winding, wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly, zigzag