Errand

//ˈɛɹənd// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A journey undertaken to accomplish some task.; A mission or quest. archaic, literary

    "What will ye, said King Arthur, and what is your errand?"

  2. 2
    a short trip that is taken in the performance of a necessary task or mission wordnet
  3. 3
    A journey undertaken to accomplish some task.; 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."

  4. 4
    The purpose of such a journey.

    "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."

  5. 5
    An oral message trusted to a person for delivery.

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To send someone on an errand. transitive

    "All the servants were on holiday or erranded out of the house."

  2. 2
    To go on an errand. intransitive

    "She spent an enjoyable afternoon erranding in the city."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English erande, erende, from Old English ǣrende, from Proto-West Germanic *ārundī (“message, errand”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English erande, erende, from Old English ǣrende, from Proto-West Germanic *ārundī (“message, errand”).

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