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re for the purpose; often, a verbal message; a commission; as, the servant was sent on an errand; to do an errand. Also, one's purpose in going anywhere. I have a secret errand to thee, O king. Judg. iii. 19. I will not eat till I have told mine errand. Gen. xxiv. 33. mission.

A stuff made of silk and wool. I did buy a colored silk ferrandine. Pepys.

week day after Christmas, a legal holiday on which Christmas boxes are given to postmen, errand boys, employees, etc. The night of this day is boxing night. [Eng.]

A Scotch errand boy, porter, or messenger. [Written also cady.] Every Scotchman, from the peer to the cadie. Macaulay.

The use or application of a caustic; cautery. Ferrand.

One intrusted with a commission, now only a small commission, as an errand; esp., an attendant or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, or the like. The commissionaire familiar to European travelers performs miscellaneous services as a light porter, messenger, solicitor for hotels, etc.

The removal or absence of color. Ferrand.

Promoting evacuations by stool. Ferrand.

Drying; tending to dry. Ferrand. -- n. (Med.)

ual power. -- Printer's devil, the youngest apprentice in a printing office, who runs on errands, does dirty work (as washing the ink rollers and sweeping), etc. "Without fearing the printer's devil or the sheriff's officer." Macaulay. -- Tasmanian devil (Zoöl.), a very savage carnivorous marsupial of Tasmania (Dasyu…

Dietetic. [R.] Ferrand.

Message; errand. Shak.

One dispatched upon an errand or mission; a messenger; esp., a person deputed by a sovereign or a government to negotiate a treaty, or transact other business, with a foreign sovereign or government; a minister accredited to a foreign government. An envoy's rank is below that of an ambassador.

Intended for a particular purpose; relating to an express; sent on a particular errand; dispatched with special speed; as, an express messenger or train. Also used adverbially. A messenger sent express from the other world. Atterbury. Express color. (Law) See the Note under Color, n., 8.

d to which bells were usually attached, formerly worn by professional jesters. -- Fool's errand, an unreasonable, silly, profitless adventure or undertaking. -- Fool's gold, iron or copper pyrites, resembling gold in color. -- Fool's paradise, a name applied to a limbo (see under Limbo) popularly believed to be the…

An under servant for the kitchen; a scullion; a cook's errand boy. [Obs.] Halliwell.

That with which a messenger or agent is charged; an errand; business or duty on which one is sent; a commission. How to begin, how to accomplish best His end of being on earth, and mission high. Milton.

as a position of honor and education; now commonly, in England, a youth employed for doin errands, waiting on the door, and similar service in households; in the United States, a boy emploed to wait upon the members of a legislative body. He had two pages of honor -- on either hand one. Bacon.

r in conformity with, the practice of Paracelsus, a Swiss physician of the 15th century. Ferrand.

To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. Tue only men that safe can ride Mine errands on the Scottish side. Sir W. Scott.