Search the Dictionary

A wandering of the mind; a crazy fancy. [Obs.] Heywood.

Having a delirium; wandering in mind; light-headed; insane; raving; wild; as, a delirious patient; delirious fancies. -- De*lir"i*ous*ly, adv. -- De*lir"i*ous*ness, n.

ressions, and actions are wild, irregular, and incoherent; mental aberration; a roving or wandering of the mind, -- usually dependent on a fever or some other disease, and so distinguished from mania, or madness.

of life; in a condition of want; needy; without possessions or resources; very poor. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Heb. xi. 37.

The act of deviating; a wandering from the way; variation from the common way, from an established rule, etc.; departure, as from the right course or the path of duty.

Going out of the right or common course; going astray; erring; wandering; as, a devious step.

A wandering about or going astray; digression. Let us be set down at Queen's Crawley without further divagation. Thackeray.

d, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel. Time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died. South.

To wander; to roam; to stray. [Archaic] "Why wilt thou err from me" Keble. What seemeth to you, if there were to a man an hundred sheep and one of them hath erred. Wyclif (Matt. xviii. 12).

A wandering; state of being in error.

Wandering; deviating from an appointed course, or from a direct path; roving. Seven planets or errant stars in the lower orbs of heaven. Sir T. Browne.

A wandering; a roving; esp., a roving in quest of adventures. Addison.

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.

A wandering; a roving about. [Obs.] Cockeram.

Wandering; straying; deviating from the right course; -- hence, irregular; unnatural. [Obs.] "Erroneous circulation." Arbuthnot. Stopped much of the erroneous light, which otherwise would have disturbed the vision. Sir I. Newman.

A wandering; a roving or irregular course. [Obs.] The rest of his journey, his error by sea. B. Jonson.

Any valuable animal, not wild, found wandering from its owner; a stray. Burrill.

A wandering about; excursion; a roving. [R.] Ray.

A wandering from a subject; digression. I am not in a scribbling mood, and shall therefore make no excursions. Cowper.

Prone to make excursions; wandering; roving; exploring; as, an excursive fancy. The course of excursive . . . understandings. I. Taylor. -- Ex*cur"sive*ly, adv. -- Ex*cur"sive*ness, , n.