Error

error
    n 1: a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or
         inattention; "he made a bad mistake"; "she was quick to
         point out my errors"; "I could understand his English in
         spite of his grammatical faults" [syn: {mistake}, {error},
         {fault}]
    2: inadvertent incorrectness [syn: {erroneousness}, {error}]
    3: a misconception resulting from incorrect information [syn:
       {error}, {erroneous belief}]
    4: (baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out
       when normal play would have sufficed [syn: {error},
       {misplay}]
    5: departure from what is ethically acceptable [syn: {error},
       {wrongdoing}]
    6: (computer science) the occurrence of an incorrect result
       produced by a computer [syn: {error}, {computer error}]
    7: part of a statement that is not correct; "the book was full
       of errors" [syn: {error}, {mistake}]
    

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.]
      [1913 Webster]

            The rest of his journey, his error by sea. --B.
                                                  Jonson.
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   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.
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   3. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false
      notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension.
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            His judgment was often in error, though his candor
            remained unimpaired.                  --Bancroft.
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   4. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or
      transgression; iniquity; fault. --Ps. xix. 12.
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   5. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and
      the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of
      double position.
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   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}.
          [1913 Webster]

   7. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record
      in matters of law or of fact.
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   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.
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   {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}.
        [1913 Webster]
    

error

   1. A discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured
   value or condition and the true, specified, or theoretically
   correct value or condition.

   2. <programming> A mental mistake made by a programmer that
   may result in a program {fault}.

   3. (verb) What a program does when it stops as result of a
   programming error.

   (2000-03-28)
    

ERROR. A mistake in judgment or deviation from the truth, in matters of fact 
and from the law in matters of judgment. 
     2.-1 Error of fact. The law has wisely provide that a person shall be 
excused, if, intending to do a lawful act, and pursuing lawful means to 
accomplish his object, he commit an act which would be criminal or unlawful, 
if it were done with a criminal design or in an unlawful manner; for 
example, thieves break into my house, in the night time, to commit a 
burglary; I rise out of my bed, and seeing a person with a drawn sword 
running towards my wife, I take him for one of the burglars, and shoot him 
down, and afterwards find he was one of my friends, whom, owing to the 
dimness of the light, I could not recognize, who had lodged with me, rose on 
the first alarm, and was in fact running towards my wife, to rescue her from 
the hands of an assassin; still I am innocent, because I committed an error 
as to a fact, which I could not know, and had, no time to inquire about. 
     3. Again, a contract made under a clear error is not binding; as, if 
the seller and purchaser of a house situated in Now York, happen to be in 
Philadelphia, and, at the time of the sale, it was unknown to both parties 
that the house was burned down, there will be no valid contract; or if I 
sell you my horse Napoleon, which we both suppose to be in my stable, and at 
the time of the contract he is dead, the sale is void. 7 How. Miss. R. 371 3 
Shepl. 45; 20 Wend. 174; 9 Shepl. 363 2 Brown, 27; 5 Conn. 71; 6 Mass. 84; 
12 Mass. 36. See Sale. 
     4. Courts of equity will in general correct and rectify all errors in 
fact committed in making deeds and contracts founded on good considerations. 
See Mistake. 
     5.-2. Error in law. As the law is, or which is the same thing, is 
presumed to be certain and definite, every man is bound to understand it, 
and an error of law will not, in general, excuse a man, for its violation. 
     6. A contract made under an error in law, is in general binding, for 
were it not so, error would be urged in almost every case. 2 East, 469; see 
6 John. Ch. R. 166 8 Cowen, 195; 2 Jac. & Walk. 249; 1 Story, Eq. Jur. 156; 
1 Younge & Coll. 232; 6 B. & C. 671 Bowy. Com. 135; 3 Sav. Dr. Rom. App. 
viii. But a foreign law will for this purpose be considered as a fact. 3 
Shepl. 45; 9 Pick. 112; 2 Ev. Pothier, 369, &c. See, also, Ignorance; 
Marriage; Mistake. 
     7. By error, is also understood a mistake made in the trial of a cause, 
to correct which a writ of error may be sued out of a superior court. 
    

ERROR, WRIT OF. A writ of error is one issued for a superior to an inferior 
court, for the purpose of bringing up the record and correcting an alleged 
error committed in the trial in the court below. But it cannot deliver the 
body from prison. Bro. Abr. Acc. pl. 45. The judges to whom the writ is 
directed have no power to return the record nisi judicium inde redditum sit. 
Nor can it be brought except on the final judgment. See Metcalf's Case, 11 
Co. Rep. 38, which is eminently instructive on this subject. Vide Writ of 
Error. 
    

260 Moby Thesaurus words for "error":
      ALGOL, Albigensianism, Arianism, COBOL, Catharism, Ebionitism,
      Erastianism, FORTRAN, Gnosticism, Jovinianism, Lollardy,
      Manichaeanism, Manichaeism, Monophysism, Monophysitism,
      Pelagianism, Waldensianism, Wyclifism, abomination, abuse of terms,
      alphabetic data, alphanumeric code, angular data, antinomianism,
      assembler, at fault, atrocity, bad, bad job, bevue, binary digit,
      binary scale, binary system, bit, bloomer, blooper, blunder,
      bobble, boggle, bonehead play, boner, boo-boo, boob, botch, breach,
      bug, bull, bungle, byte, catachresis, clanger, clerical error,
      clumsy performance, command pulses, commands, compiler,
      computer code, computer language, computer program, contorting,
      control signals, controlled quantity, correcting signals,
      corrigendum, crime, crime against humanity, data, deadly sin,
      delinquency, delusion, dereliction, disgrace, distortion,
      eisegesis, emanatism, enormity, erratum, erroneously,
      erroneousness, error in judgment, error signals, etourderie, evil,
      failure, fallaciousness, fallacy, false doctrine, falsehood,
      falseness, falsity, fault, faute, faux pas, feedback pulses,
      feedback signals, felony, film data, flagitiousness, flaw, flub,
      fluff, foozle, foul-up, fumble, gaffe, garbling, gaucherie,
      genocide, gloss, goof, guilty act, hash, heavy sin, heresy,
      hexadecimal system, howler, human error, hylotheism, illusion,
      impropriety, in error, inaccuracy, incorrect, incorrectly,
      indecorum, indiscretion, inexpiable sin, infamy, information,
      iniquity, injudiciousness, injury, injustice, input data,
      input quantity, instructions, knavery, lapse, literal,
      machine language, malefaction, malentendu, malfeasance,
      malobservation, malum, mess, message, minor wrong, misapplication,
      misappreciation, misapprehension, misbelief, miscalculation,
      miscarriage, miscitation, miscomputation, misconception,
      misconduct, misconjecture, misconstruction, miscount, miscue,
      misdeal, misdeed, misdemeanor, misdoing, misestimation,
      misevaluation, misexplanation, misexplication, misexposition,
      misfeasance, misidentification, misintelligence, misinterpretation,
      misjudgment, misplay, misprint, misquotation, misreading,
      misrendering, misreport, miss, misstatement, misstep, mistake,
      mistaken, mistakenly, mistranslation, misunderstanding, misuse,
      misuse of words, misvaluation, mortal sin, muff, multiple messages,
      near-miss, noise, nonfeasance, numeric data, obliquity,
      octal system, off day, offense, omission, oscillograph data,
      output data, output quantity, outrage, oversight, pantheism,
      peccadillo, peccancy, perversion, play, polar data, poor judgment,
      punch-card data, random data, rectangular data, reference quantity,
      reprobacy, rock, ruly English, sad work, scandal, screamer, shame,
      signals, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act,
      single messages, skewed judgment, slip, slipup, solecism,
      squeezing, stumble, tort, torturing, transgression, trespass, trip,
      twisting, typo, typographical error, unorganized data, untruth,
      unutterable sin, venial sin, villainy, visible-speech data,
      wickedness, wrenching, wrong, wrong construction, wrong impression,
      wrongdoing