a. & sb. [f. prec. + -AL.]
1. Wandering.
1620. Bp. Hall, Hon. Mar. Clergie, 200. This man’s wit wanders with his erraticall synode.
1646. J. Mayne, Serm. agst. False Prophets (1647), 24. Those erraticall, uncertain, wandring night-fires, … which shine only to lead Travellers out of the way?
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, IV. ii. 20. The Midianites especially led erraticall lives.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
2. † a. Deviating from a given type. b. Guided by no rule, capricious, irregular, strange.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. vi. 95. And therefore come not forth in generations erraticall, or different from each other.
1698. W. Chilcot, Evil Thoughts, iv. (1851), 48. Unhappy conjunctions oftentimes prove the consequence of such erratical motions.
1859. Ruskin, Two Paths, ii. 70. And enough bad teaching, to bring out very erratical results.
† B. sb. = ERRATIC B. 2. Obs.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., clxxxv. 796. Were the scurvy position of [sybmol] in [sybmol] seconded with other malignant positures of the Erraticals?
Hence Erratically adv., in an erratic manner; irregularly, capriciously. Erraticalness.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 99. Varieth their direction diversely, and erratically.
1775. in Ash.
1861. Wilson & Geikie, Mem. E. Forbes, xii. 427. The remainder of this year was spent somewhat erratically.
1862. Lytton, Str. Story, I. 166. The needle stirred, indeed, but erratically.
1883. H. Sturmey, Tricyclist’s Indispens. Ann., 10. The machine is made to steer very erratically.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Erraticalness, wandring faculty.
