Erratic
[ɪ'rætɪk]
Definition
(adj.) liable to sudden unpredictable change; 'erratic behavior'; 'fickle weather'; 'mercurial twists of temperament'; 'a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next' .
(adj.) likely to perform unpredictably; 'erratic winds are the bane of a sailor'; 'a temperamental motor; sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn't'; 'that beautiful but temperamental instrument the flute'- Osbert Lancaster .
(adj.) having no fixed course; 'an erratic comet'; 'his life followed a wandering course'; 'a planetary vagabond' .
Editor: Stu--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination; wandering; moving; -- hence, applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars.
(a.) Deviating from a wise of the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; strange; queer; as, erratic conduct.
(a.) Irregular; changeable.
(n.) One who deviates from common and accepted opinions; one who is eccentric or preserve in his intellectual character.
(n.) A rogue.
(n.) Any stone or material that has been borne away from its original site by natural agencies; esp., a large block or fragment of rock; a bowlder.
Inputed by Bennett
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Wandering, roving, nomadic, not stationary.[2]. Irregular, eccentric, abnormal.
Edited by Della
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Desultory, aberrant, abnormal, flighty, changeful, capricious
ANT:Regular, normal, methodical, calculable, unalterable, steady, undeviate
Checked by Jessie
Unserious Contents or Definition
Full of mistakes.
Typed by Arlene
Examples
- Simultaneously the little boat spun around and shot out toward the Gulf Stream like an agitated and very erratic rocket, flinging great sheets of spray high into the air as it sped. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- They held that stri ct law governs the apparently erratic movements of the heavenly bodies. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Hanging on the tail of a kite it photographs the face of mother earth, and, acting quicker than the lightning, it catches and defines the path of that erratic flash. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Though occasionally chatty, his moods were erratic, and nobody could be certain how he would behave at any particular moment. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Throughout a large part of the United States, erratic boulders and scored rocks plainly reveal a former cold period. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Slowly she swung from her course, circling back toward us in an erratic and pitiful manner. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- The average individual does not bother himself much about the calculation of eclipses, or the laws which govern the movements of an erratic comet. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Erratic boulders have, also, been noticed on the Rocky Mountains. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Inputed by Josiah