ERRANT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does errant mean? 

• ERRANT (adjective)
  The adjective ERRANT has 2 senses:

1. straying from the right course or from accepted standards

2. uncontrolled motion that is irregular or unpredictable

  Familiarity information: ERRANT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ERRANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Straying from the right course or from accepted standards

Context example:

errant youngsters

Similar:

fallible (likely to fail or make errors)

Derivation:

errancy (fallibility as indicated by erring or a tendency to err)

errancy ((Christianity) holding views that disagree with accepted doctrine; especially disagreement with papal infallibility)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Uncontrolled motion that is irregular or unpredictable

Context example:

an errant breeze

Similar:

uncontrolled (not being under control; out of control)

Derivation:

err (wander from a direct course or at random)

 Context examples 

“Nonsense, errant nonsense, as ever was talked!” cried Mr. Knightley.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his wounded arm.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Chasing an errant swarm of bees is nothing to following a naked lunatic, when the fit of escaping is upon him!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

If she had ever loved me, then, I should hold her the more sacred; remembering the confidences I had reposed in her, her knowledge of my errant heart, the sacrifice she must have made to be my friend and sister, and the victory she had won.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The fame and brilliancy of the prince's court had drawn the knights-errant and pursuivants-of-arms from every part of Europe.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“What ho! my knight-errant of Twynham!” said a voice, “You are off to Ebro, I hear; and, by the holy fish of Tobias! you must take me under your banner.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Good, quiet, uncomplaining mother Nature, long slighted and miscalled, still bides her time and draws to her bosom the most errant of her children.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For I would have you give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discoursing with my daughter, the Lady Maude; for she is somewhat backward, I fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor fond romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sir Nigel had with him Sir William Felton, Sir Oliver Buttesthorn, stout old Sir Simon Burley, the Scotch knight-errant, the Earl of Angus, and Sir Richard Causton, all accounted among the bravest knights in the army, together with sixty veteran men-at-arms, and three hundred and twenty archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)