See Also: Erratic(medicine)
erratic(dictionary)
erratic(dictionary)

erratic (iou)



erratic adjective & noun. LME.
[Old French erratique from Latin erraticus, from errat- pa. ppl stem of errare: see ERR, -IC.]
A. adjective.
1. Irregular or uncertain in movement; having no fixed course or direction. LME.
A. C. Clarke The animal was moving in a curiously erratic path,..making little darts to right or left.
b. Of a disease or pain: moving from one part of the body to another. M16-M18.
c. Itinerant; nomadic; vagrant. arch. M17.
2. Inconsistently variable in behaviour or habit; unpredictable; irregular or eccentric in opinion. M19.
M. E. Braddon He did not appear at luncheon, but..he is always erratic.
Special collocations: erratic block, erratic boulder: that differs from the surrounding rock and is thought to have been brought from a distance by glacial action. erratic star a planet.
B. noun.
1. An erratic person. E17.
2. = erratic block above. M19.
erratical adjective (now rare or obsolete) = ERRATIC adjective E17.
erratically adverb E17.
erraticism noun erratic tendencies; an instance of erratic behaviour: L19.
erraticness noun E20.