Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Error \Er"ror\, n. [OF. error, errur, F. erreur, L. error, fr.
errare to err. See {Err}.]
1. A wandering; a roving or irregular course. [Obs.]
The rest of his journey, his error by sea. --B.
Jonson.
2. 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.
3. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false
notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension.
H? judgment was often in error, though his candor
remained unimpaired. --Bancroft.
4. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or
transgression; iniquity; fault. --Ps. xix. 12.
5. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and
the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of
double position.
6. (Mensuration)
(a) The difference between an observed value and the true
value of a quantity.
(b) The difference between the observed value of a
quantity and that which is taken or computed to be the
true value; -- sometimes called {residual error}.
7. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record
in matters of law or of fact.
8. (Baseball) A fault of a player of the side in the field
which results in failure to put out a player on the other
side, or gives him an unearned base.
{Law of error}, or {Law of frequency of error} (Mensuration),
the law which expresses the relation between the magnitude
of an error and the frequency with which that error will
be committed in making a large number of careful
measurements of a quantity.
{Probable error}. (Mensuration) See under {Probable}.
{Writ of error} (Law), an original writ, which lies after
judgment in an action at law, in a court of record, to
correct some alleged error in the proceedings, or in the
judgment of the court. --Bouvier. Burrill.
Syn: Mistake; fault; blunder; failure; fallacy; delusion;
hallucination; sin. See {Blunder}.