errand
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English erande, erende, from Old English ǣrende, from Proto-West Germanic *ārundī (“message, errand”).
Pronunciation
Noun
errand (plural errands)
- A journey undertaken to accomplish some task.
- (literary or archaic) A mission or quest.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur
- What will ye, said King Arthur, and what is your errand?
- 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
- Few have ever come hither through greater peril or on an errand more urgent.
- In this evil hour I have come on an errand over many dangerous leagues to Elrond: a hundred and ten days I have journeyed all alone.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur
- A mundane mission of no great consequence, concerning household or business affairs (dropping items by, doing paperwork, going to a friend's house, etc.)
- The errands before he could start the project included getting material at the store and getting the tools he had lent his neighbors.
- I'm going to town on some errands.
- (literary or archaic) A mission or quest.
- The purpose of such a journey.
- Template:RQ:EHough PrqsPrc
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
- Template:RQ:EHough PrqsPrc
- An oral message trusted to a person for delivery.
- John Donne
- I had not taught thee then the alphabet
Of flowers, how they, devicefully being set
And bound up, might with speechless secrecy
Deliver errands mutely and mutually.
- I had not taught thee then the alphabet
- John Donne
Derived terms
Translations
trip to accomplish a small task
|
purpose of a small trip
|
oral message
|
Verb
errand (third-person singular simple present errands, present participle erranding, simple past and past participle erranded)
- (transitive) To send someone on an errand.
- All the servants were on holiday or erranded out of the house.
- (intransitive) To go on an errand.
- She spent an enjoyable afternoon erranding in the city.
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
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- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
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- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɛɹənd
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