erratic

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: er=rat=ic

CIDE DICTIONARY

erratic, a. [L. erraticus, fr. errare to wander: cf. F. erratique. See Err.].

•  Having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination; wandering; moving; -- hence, applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars.  [1913 Webster]

  "The earth and each erratic world."  [1913 Webster]
•  Deviating from a wise of the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; strange; queer; as, erratic conduct.  [1913 Webster]
•  Irregular; changeable.  Harvey.  [1913 Webster]

Erratic blocks, gravel, etc. (Geol.), masses of stone which have been transported from their original resting places by the agency of water, ice, or other causes. -- Erratic phenomena, the phenomena which relate to transported materials on the earth's surface.

erratic, n. 

•  One who deviates from common and accepted opinions; one who is eccentric or preserve in his intellectual character.  [1913 Webster]
•  A rogue.  Cockeram.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any stone or material that has been borne away from its original site by natural agencies; esp., a large block or fragment of rock; a bowlder.  [1913 Webster]

  " In the plural the term is applied especially to the loose gravel and stones on the earth's surface, including what is called drift."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

erratic, adj.
1 inconsistently variable in conduct, opinions, etc.
2 uncertain in movement.

Idiom

erratic block Geol. a large rock carried from a distance by glacial action.

Derivative

erratically adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF erratique f. L erraticus (as ERR)

THESAURUS

erratic

aberrant, aberrative, abnormal, adrift, afloat, agnostic, aimless, alternating, ambiguous, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, bizarre, broken, capricious, careening, casual, catchy, chancy, changeable, changeful, changing, character, choppy, circuitous, crackpot, crank, crankish, cranky, crotchety, curving, departing, desultory, deviable, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, dicey, different, digressive, directionless, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinuous, discursive, disjunct, disordered, disorderly, dispersed, disproportionate, divagatory, divaricate, divergent, diversified, diversiform, dizzy, dotty, doubtful, doubting, dubious, eccentric, equivocal, erose, errant, exceptional, excursive, extraordinary, fast and loose, fey, fickle, fitful, flake, flaky, flickering, flighty, flitting, fluctuant, fluctuating, formless, freak, freakish, frivolous, funny, giddy, gratuitous, guttering, halting, haphazard, herky-jerky, hesitant, hesitating, heteroclite, heteromorphic, hit-or-miss, idiocratic, idiosyncratic, iffy, immethodical, impetuous, impulsive, incalculable, inchoate, incoherent, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indemonstrable, indirect, indiscriminate, infirm, intermittent, intermitting, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, jagged, jerky, kinky, kook, kooky, labyrinthine, lurching, maggoty, mazy, meandering, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen, moody, motley, mutable, nonconformist, nonstandard, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, nut, nutty, odd, oddball, orderless, out-of-the-way, outlandish, patchy, peculiar, planetary, planless, pluralistic, polysemous, promiscuous, quaint, queer, quirky, ragged, rambling, random, recluse, restless, rough, roundabout, roving, scatterbrained, scrappy, screwball, screwy, senseless, serpentine, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, singular, skeptical, snaky, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, sporadic, spotty, staggering, straggling, straggly, strange, strange duck, stray, straying, subnormal, swerving, systemless, touch-and-go, turning, twisted, twisting, unaccountable, unarranged, uncertain, unclassified, unconfirmable, uncontrolled, unconventional, unconvinced, undependable, undirected, undisciplined, undivinable, unequable, unequal, uneven, unfixed, unforeseeable, ungraded, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unnatural, unordered, unorganized, unorthodox, unpersuaded, unpredictable, unprovable, unregular, unreliable, unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsorted, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsure, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, ununiform, unusual, unverifiable, vacillating, vagarious, vagrant, vague, variable, variegated, variform, various, varying, veering, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wacky, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, weird, weirdo, whimsical, winding, wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly, zigzag

ROGET THESAURUS

erratic

Caprice

N caprice, fancy, humor, whim, whimsy, whimsey, whimwham, crotchet, capriccio, quirk, freak, maggot, fad, vagary, prank, fit, flimflam, escapade, boutade, wild-goose chase, capriciousness, kink, capricious, erratic, eccentric, fitful, hysterical, full of whims, maggoty, inconsistent, fanciful, fantastic, whimsical, crotchety, kinky, particular, humorsome, freakish, skittish, wanton, wayward, contrary, captious, arbitrary, unconformable, penny wise and pound foolish, fickle, frivolous, sleeveless, giddy, volatile, by fits and starts, without rhyme or reason, nil fuit unquain sic inipar sibi, the deuce is in him.

Changeableness

N changeableness, mutability, inconstancy, versatility, mobility, instability, unstable equilibrium, vacillation, fluctuation, vicissitude, alternation, restlessness, fidgets, disquiet, disquietude, inquietude, unrest, agitation, moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, weathercock, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers, wheel of Fortune, transientness, changeable, changeful, changing, mutable, variable, checkered, ever changing, protean, proteiform, versatile, unstaid, inconstant, unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled, fluctuating, restless, agitated, erratic, fickle, irresolute, capricious, touch and go, inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic, vibratory, vagrant, wayward, desultory, afloat, alternating, alterable, plastic, mobile, transient, wavering, seesaw, off and on, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pictra mossa non fa muschis, honores mutant mores, varium et mutabile semper femina.

Motion

N motion, movement, move, going, unrest, stream, flow, flux, run, course, stir, evolution, kinematics, telekinesis, step, rate, pace, tread, stride, gait, port, footfall, cadence, carriage, velocity, angular velocity, clip, progress, locomotion, journey, voyage, transit, restlessness, mobility, movableness, motive power, laws of motion, mobilization, moving, in motion, transitional, motory, motive, shifting, movable, mobile, mercurial, unquiet, restless, nomadic, erratic, under way, on the move, on the wing, on the tramp, on the march, eppur si muove, es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt.

Deviation

N deviation, swerving, obliquation, warp, refraction, flection, flexion, sweep, deflection, deflexure, declination, diversion, digression, depart from, aberration, divergence, zigzag, detour, divagation, wandering, vagrancy, evagation, bypaths and crooked ways, byroad, sidling, knight's move at chess, deviating, aberrant, errant, excursive, discursive, devious, desultory, loose, rambling, stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag, crab-like, astray from, round about, wide of the mark, to the right about, all manner of ways, circuitously, obliquely, sideling, like the move of the knight on a chessboard.