Search the Dictionary

An error or mistake in writing or printing. A single erratum may knock out the brains of a whole passage. Cowper.

Misleading; misled; mistaking. [Obs.] An erroneous conscience commands us to do what we ought to omit. Jer. Taylor.

A wandering or deviation from the right course or standard; irregularity; mistake; inaccuracy; something made wrong or left wrong; as, an error in writing or in printing; a clerical error.

That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [Obs.] I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. Burton.

A euphemistic name for the Furies of Erinyes.

To express by a euphemism, or in delicate language; to make use of euphemistic expressions.

effluvium; emanation; as, exhalations from the earth or flowers, decaying matter, etc. Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise From hill or steaming lake. Milton.

, or with scanty or unsuitable materials; as, to extemporize a dinner, a costume, etc. Themistocles . . . was of all men the best able to extemporize the right thing to be done. Jowett (Thucyd. ). Pitt, of whom it was said that he could extemporize a Queen's speech Lord Campbell.

pper part or surface; that which particularly offers itself to the view of a spectator. A mist . . . watered the whole face of the ground. Gen. ii. 6. Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face. Byron.

To err in judgment; to be mistaken. Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not. Milton.

Liable to fail, mistake, or err; liable to deceive or to be deceived; as, all men are fallible; our opinions and hopes are fallible.

gination; whimsical; full of absurd fancies; capricious; as, fantastic minds; a fantastic mistress.

A false step; a mistake or wrong measure.

A falsehood; a lie; -- used euphemistically. They are very serious; they don't tell fibs. H. James.

To play on a fiddle. Themistocles . . . said he could not fiddle, but he could make a small town a great city. Bacon.

fficer posted in the rear of a line, or on the flank of a column, of soldiers, to rectify mistakes and insure steadiness and promptness in the ranks.

Ornament; decoration; especially, excecially decoration; showy clothes; jewels. Her mistress' cast-off finery. F. W. Robertson.

contents laterally without danger of spilling; -- so called from Erlenmeyer, a German chemist who invented it. -- Florence flask. Etym: [From Florence in Italy.] (a) Same as Betty, n., 3. (b) A glass flask, round or pear-shaped, with round or flat bottom, and usually very thin to allow of heating solutions. -- Pocke…

Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright. Flat burglary as ever was committed. Shak. A great tobacco taker too, -- that's flat. Marston.

isturbing its transparency. It differs from cloud only in being near the ground, and from mist in not approaching so nearly to fine rain. See Cloud.