errand
Americannoun
-
a short and quick trip to accomplish a specific purpose, as to buy something, deliver a package, or convey a message, often for someone else.
- Synonyms:
- chore, assignment, task, mission
-
the purpose of such a trip.
He finished his errands.
- Synonyms:
- chore, assignment, task, mission
-
a special mission or function entrusted to a messenger; commission.
noun
-
a short trip undertaken to perform a necessary task or commission (esp in the phrase run errands )
-
the purpose or object of such a trip
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of errand
First recorded before 900; Middle English erande, Old English ærende; cognate with Old High German āruntī; compare Old English ār “messenger,” Gothic airus; not related to err ( def. ), errant ( def. )
Explanation
An errand is a short trip to fulfill some small business. When you’re running errands, you’re making a bunch of these all at once. The noun errand can refer to the mission of the trip itself. If the lines are always long at the bank, then banking may be your least favorite errand. If you are off on a wild goose chase, you may be out on a fool's errand. If you are taking food or clothing to someone in need, then you are on an errand of mercy.
Vocabulary lists containing errand
Beowulf vocabulary
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Chains
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She had met Lewis after performing her comedy on a talk show, and he gave her a role in “The Errand Boy.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2022
Tourgée was not uncritical of Reconstruction — he called his best-selling novel based on his time in the South “A Fool’s Errand, by One of the Fools.”
From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2019
“We have in great part, forgotten our Errand in this Wilderness,” thundered Increase Mather, president of Harvard.
From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018
Busque founded TaskRabbit, originally called Run My Errand, in 2008.
From The Verge • Sep. 28, 2017
Prince returned, his Errand with John complete; he said the Boy slept & was like to live.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
