Errand

Definition: Errand

Errand

Noun

1. A short trip that is taken in the performance of a necessary task or mission.

Date "errand" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Business	Matter in hand, irons in the fire; thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care; duty.
Commission	Errand, charge, brevet, diploma, exequatur, permit; (permission).
Deception	Decoy, waylay, lure, beguile, delude, inveigle; entrap, intrap, ensnare; nick, springe; set a trap, lay a trap, lay a snare for; bait the hook, forelay, spread the toils, lime; trapan, trepan; kidnap; let in, hook in; nousle, nousel; blind a trail; enmesh, immesh; shanghai; catch, catch in a trap; sniggle, entangle, illaqueate, hocus, escamoter, practice on one's credulity; hum, humbug; gammon, stuff up, sell; play a trick upon one, play a practical joke upon one, put something over on one, put one over on; balk, trip up, throw a tub to a whale; fool to the top of one's bent, send on a fool's errand; make game, make a fool of, make an April fool of, make an ass of; trifle with, cajole, flatter; come over; (influence); gild the pill, make things pleasant, divert, put a good face upon; dissemble.
Inutility	Noun: inutility; uselessness; Adjective: inefficacy, futility; ineptitude, inaptitude; unsubservience; inadequacy; (insufficiency); inefficiency.; (incompetence); unskillfulness; disservice; unfruitfulness;(unproductiveness).; labor in vain, labor lost, labor of Sisyphus; lost trouble, lost labor; work of Penelope; sleeveless errand, wild goose chase, mere farce.
Messenger	Commissionaire; errand boy, chore boy; newsboy.
News	Word, advice, aviso, message; dispatch, despatch; telegram, cable, marconigram, wire, communication, errand, embassy.
Rashness	Donner tete baissee; knock, one's bead against a wall; (be unskillful); rush on destruction; kick against the pricks, tempt Providence, go on a forlorn hope, go on a fool's errand.
Unskillfulness	Cut blocks with a razor; hold a farthing candle to the sun; (useless); fight with a shadow, grasp at a shadow; catch at straws, lean on a broken reed, reckon without one's host, pursue a wild goose chase; go on a fool's goose chase, sleeveless errand; go further and fare worse; lose one's way, miss one's way; fail.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Errand

English words defined with "errand": bellboy, bellhop, bellman ♦ Embassage, errand boy ♦ fool's errand, Foot page ♦ Gallopin ♦ Mission school ♦ rapid ♦ speedy. (references)

Specialty definitions using "errand": Bootless Errand ♦ DULL SWIFT ♦ Errands ♦ MERCURY ♦ QUICK AND NIMBLE ♦ Sleeveless Errand. (references)

Etymologies containing "errand": Arrant. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	You're a punk, a rank amateur, a costumed errand boy taking orders from a senile old man. (Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker; writing credit: Bob Kane; Paul Dini) I hear you wrangled yourself a new errand boy. (Batman Beyond; writing credit: Hilary Bader; Stan Berkowitz) You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill. (Apocalypse Now; writing credit: John Milius ; Francis Ford Coppola)
Movie/TV Titles	The Errand Boy (1961) Fool's Errand (1927) A Fruitless Errand (1915) Our New Errand Boy (1905) The Errand (1993)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Errand into the Wilderness (reference) Fool's Errand (reference) Searching for Virginia Dare: A Fool's Errand (reference) Star Trek: The Original Series: The Edge of the Sword: Errand of Vengeance Book One [DOWNLOAD: MICROSOFT READER] (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 14, Episodes 27 & 28: Errand of Mercy/ The City on the Edge of Forever (reference) Errand Boy (reference) Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 27: Errand Of Mercy (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Errand Girl for Rhythm (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	On a fool's errand.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	It is my daily errand.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	In this adoration, she forgot everything, even the errand on which she had been sent.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Worker Rights	Cote d'Ivoire	Labor law limits the hours of young workers, defined as those under the age of 18. However, children often work on family farms, and some children routinely act as vendors, shoe shiners, errand boys, car watchers, and washers of car windows in the informal sector in cities. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Errand" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.56% of the time. "Errand" is used about 139 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	98.56%	137	27,138
Lexical Verb (base form)	0.72%	1	339,140
Noun (proper)	0.72%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	139	N/A

Expressions using "errand": errand boy ♦ fools errand ♦ fool's errand ♦ go on a fool's errand ♦ sleeveless errand ♦ to run an errand. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "errand": errand-boy, errand-boys, errand-girl.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "errand"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		opdrag (commission, mission), boodskap (message). (various references)

Albanian		porosi (charge, exhortation, guideline, indent, indentation, instruction, order, prescript, prescription, request). (various references)

Arabic		‏مهمة (assignment, business, charge, commission, designation, duty, function, job, mission, office, place, stint, task, undertaking, work), ‏مأمورية (commission, mission), ‏إداء رسالة, ‏رحلة قصيرة للقيام برسالة, ‏رسالة شفهية. (various references)

Bulgarian		поръчка (message, order), поръчение (charge, instruction, message, mission). (various references)

Catalan		enc� rrec (message), missatge (message). (various references)

Chinese		差事 (chore). (various references)

Czech		posílka, pochùzka. (various references)

Danish		beretning (account, bulletin, communication, information, message, record, report). (various references)

Dutch		opdracht (command, commission, dedication, dedicatory letter, instruction, mission, postponed order, prefatory letter, statement, task), commissie (brokerage, commission, committee, placing commission, selling fee), boodschap (commission, message). (various references)

Esperanto		mesaĝo (message), komisio (commission). (various references)

Faeroese		sendiboð (message), boð (command, message, order, treat). (various references)

Farsi		فرمان (Bull, Charter, Command, Commandment, Commission, Decree, Edict, Institute, Mandate, Ordinance, Ordonnance, Precept, Sanction, Word), پیغام رسانی , پیغام بری , پیغام (Dispatch, Message, Word), ماموریت (Agency, Assignment, Duty, Function, Mission, Tour). (various references)

Finnish		sanoma (message, news, tidings). (various references)

French		commission, message. (various references)

German		besorgung (care, management, procurement, purchase), gang (aisle, alleyway, ambulation, arcade, bout, canal, clearance, colonnade, corridor, course, development, dike, duct, dyke, gait, gallery, gang, gangway, gear, hallway, heat, landing, lead, lode, meatus, operation, pace, passage, passage(way), passageway, porter, rate, reef, running, speed, strake, stride, thread, tunnel, vein, walk, walkway, water gallery, workability), auftrag (application, back-filling, brief, commission, construction of an embankment, contract, delegation, embankment, fill, fill embankment, filling, forming of an embankment, instruction, job, mandate, mission, order, postponed order, remit, task). (various references)

Greek		παραγγελία (commission, delegation, forecast, message, notice, order, warning), αποστολή (assignment, consignment, delegation, mission, shipment, shipping), θέλημα. (various references)

Hebrew		משלחת (contingent, delegacy, delegation, deputation, expedition, mission), שליחות (message, mission, vocation). (various references)

Hungarian		küldetés (mission), megbízás (accreditation, assignment, authority, charge, commission, entrusting, mandate, mission, order). (various references)

Indonesian		suruhan, pesanan (reservation). (various references)

Italian		messaggio (address, despatch, dispatch, embassy, message, notice, prompt). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		遣い (bearer, familiar spirit, going as envoy, message, messenger, mission, tamer, trainer, usage, use), �"�向き (one's business), お使い , 使い (bearer, familiar spirit, going as envoy, message, messenger, mission, tamer, trainer, usage, use), 使命 (message, mission). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おつかい, しめい (designate, fate, full name, identity, life or death, message, mission, name, nominate), つかい (bearer, familiar spirit, going as envoy, message, messenger, mission, tamer, trainer, usage, use), ようむき (one's business). (various references)

Korean		심부름. (various references)

Manx		eilkin, chyrrys (tour). (various references)

Maya		tus-beh (errand boy). (various references)

Norwegian		oppdrag (commission, mission). (various references)

Papiamen		mensahe (message). (various references)

Pig Latin		erranday

Portuguese		mensagem (communication, message, summons). (various references)

Romanian		misiune (delegation, detachment, goal, message, mission), cursã (ambush, chase, course, decoy, drive, gin, journey, pit, pitfall, race, races, ride, riding, run, running, snare, springe, stroke, take in, the dogs, toil, trap), comision (commission, poundage), însãrcinare (assignment, charging, commission, message, task). (various references)

Russian		поручение (charge, commision, commission, commission contract, message, mission). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		zadatak (assignment, job, mission, problem, task), poruka (message). (various references)

Spanish		recado (message, word), mensaje (despatch, dispatch, letter, message). (various references)

Swedish		ärende (case, matter, message, subject). (various references)

Thai		งานที่ใช้ให้ทำ. (various references)

Turkish		getir götür işi, bir iş için gönderme, ayak işleri. (various references)

Turkmen		яumuю (duty). (various references)

Ukranian		завдання (assignment, job, lesson, objective, problem, task), доручення (authorization, delegation, mandate, message, mission, procurance, procuration, procuratory, proxy). (various references)

Vietnamese		mục đích (design, goal, mark, purport, purpose, sake, scope). (various references)

Welsh		neges (message). (various references)

Zulu		umumayalezo (message), umbiko (message). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Date	Source	Genesis Chapter 24, Verse 33
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Kai pareqhken autoiV artouV fagein kai eipen ou mh fagw ewV tou lalhsai me ta rhmata mou kai eipan lalhson
Latin	405	Vulgate	Et adpositus est in conspectu eius panis qui ait non comedam donec loquar sermones meos respondit ei loquere
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	And there was sett brede in his siyt, the which seith, Y shal not eet, to the tyme Y speke my wordis. He answeride to hym, Spek.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	And there was meate sett before him to eate.But he sayde: I will not eate vntill I haue sayde myne earede: And he sayde saye on.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	And there was set food before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told my errand. And he said, Speak on.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	And meat was put before him, but he said, I will not take food till I have made my business clear to you. And they said, Do so.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Genesis Chapter 24, Verse 33
Cebuano	Ug ilang gidulot sa iyang atubangan ang pagkaon; apan siya miingon: Dili ako mokaon hangtud nga ikasulti ko ang gisugo kanako. Ug siya miingon kaniya: Isulti mo.
Chinese	把飯 �"� 在他面前、叫他喫、他卻說、我不喫、等我說明白我的事情再喫、拉班說、請說。
Croatian	Ali kad su preda nj stavili hranu, reèe: "Neæu jesti dok ne kažem što imam kazati." A Laban mu reèe: "Onda kazuj!"
Danish	Men da der blev sat Mad for ham, sagde han: "Jeg vil intet nyde, før jeg har røgtet mit Ærinde!" De svarede: "Sig frem!"
Dutch	Daarna werd hem te eten voorgezet; maar hij zeide: Ik zal niet eten, totdat ik mijn woorden gesproken heb. En hij zeide: Spreek!
Finnish	Sitten pantiin ruokaa hänen eteensä, mutta hän sanoi: "En syö, ennenkuin olen puhunut asiani". Laaban vastasi: "Puhu".
French	Puis, il lui servit � manger. Mais il dit: Je ne mangerai point, avant d`avoir dit ce que j`ai � dire. Parle! dit Laban.
German	und setzte ihnen Essen vor. Er sprach aber: Ich will nicht essen, bis daß ich zuvor meine Sache vorgebracht habe. Sie antworteten: Sage an!
Haitian Creole	Lèfini, yo sèvi yo manje. Men nonm lan di: -Anvan m' manje, se pou m' di sa m' gen pou m' di a. Laban di l': -Bon. Pale non.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Ketika makanan dihidangkan, hamba itu berkata, "Saya tidak akan makan sebelum menyampaikan pesan yang saya bawa." Laban berkata, "Silakan bicara."
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Kemudian disajikan oranglah kepadanya makanan, tetapi katanya: Tiada hamba mau makan sebelum hamba katakan habis segala perkataan hamba dahulu. Maka sahut Laban: Katakanlah dia.
Maori	Na ka whakatakotoria he kai ki tona aroaro; otiia ka mea ia, E kore ahau e kai, kia korerotia ra ano e ahau taku haere. Ka mea tera, Korero.
Norwegian	Og de satte frem mat for ham; men han sa: Jeg vil ikke ete før jeg har båret frem mitt ærend. Og Laban sa: Tal!
Portuguese	Depois puseram comida diante dele. Ele, porém, disse: Não comerei, até que tenha exposto a minha incumbência. Respondeu-lhe Labão: Fala.
Rumanian	Apoi, i -a dat sq mqnknce. Dar el a zis: ,,Nu mqnknc pknq nu voi spune ce am de spus.`` ,,Vorbewte!`` a zis Laban.
Spanish	También puso comida delante de él, pero él dijo: --No comeré hasta que haya dicho lo que tengo que decir. Labán le dijo: --Habla.
Swedish	Och man satte fram mat för honom; men han sade: "Jag vill icke äta, förrän jag har framfört mitt ärende." Laban svarade: "Så tala då."
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "errand": errands. (additional references)
	Words ending with "errand": krugerrand. (additional references)
	Words containing "errand": krugerrands. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Errand" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: arrand, egrand, Eirann, Ekram, Ekrund, emrawde, eragny, eran, erand, erane, erang, Erard, Erbani, ercan, erian, Erkan, Erland, ermand, Ernani, erram, erran, errans, erren, errine, erron, errond, errons, Ertan, erund, Erzan, Evrard, Eyraud, Ferrano, Gerbrandy, Gerrand, orrenda, perran, Sebrand, Serradj, serranid, verran, verrand. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "errand" (pronounced e"rund)
3	-u n d	abandoned, aforementioned, aland, almond, apportioned, auctioned, auditioned, awakened, bargained, beckoned, blackened, bludgeoned, brightened, broadened, burdened, burgeoned, buttoned, captioned, cautioned, championed, chastened, cheapened, chickened, christened, commissioned, conditioned, cordoned, cottoned, cushioned, dampened, darkened, decommissioned, deepened, destined, determined, diamond, dimensioned, disciplined, disheartened, disillusioned, dockland, Eland, emblazoned, emboldened, engined, enlightened, enlivened, envisioned, evened, examined, fashioned, fastened, fattened, flattened, frightened, functioned, gardened, Garland, garrisoned, glistened, happened, hardened, hastened, heartened, heightened, Highland, Holland, husband, illumined, imagined, impassioned, imprisoned, island, jettisoned, leavened, legend, lengthened, lessened, ligand, lightened, likened, listened, livened, loosened, malfunctioned, margined, mentioned, millisecond, moistened, moribund, motioned, nanosecond, Norland, occasioned, opened, optioned, orphaned, Osmund, overburdened, pardoned, partitioned, petitioned, poisoned, positioned, predestined, predetermined, prisoned, proportioned, propositioned, questioned, quickened, rationed, reasoned, reawakened, rechristened, reckoned, reconditioned, reexamined, reopened, repositioned, requisitioned, Reverend, ripened, ruined, saddened, sanctioned, seasoned, second, sectioned, sharpened, Shetland, shortened, sickened, siphoned, slackened, softened, soland, stationed, steepened, stiffened, stipend, straightened, strengthened, summoned, sweetened, thickened, thousand, threatened, tightened, toughened, unburdened, unbuttoned, undetermined, unenlightened, unmentioned, unopened, unquestioned, unsanctioned, upland, vacationed, weakened, widened, wizened, worsened.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: darner.
	Words within the letters "a-d-e-n-r-r"
	-1 letter: darer, denar, drear, rared, redan, reran.
	-2 letters: dare, darn, dean, dear, earn, nard, near, nerd, rand, rare, read, rear, rend.
	-3 letters: and, ane, are, den, ear, end, era, ern, err, nae, rad, ran, red.
	-4 letters: ad, ae, an, ar, de, ed, en, er, na, ne, re.
	Words containing the letters "a-d-e-n-r-r"
	+1 letter: adorner, brander, darners, drainer, errands, gnarred, grander, knarred, pardner, randier, readorn, redrawn, reynard.
	+2 letters: adorners, arranged, branders, darkener, darneder, drainers, gardener, garnered, grandeur, hardener, infrared, narrated, narrowed, ordainer, panderer, pardners, pardoner, rancored, readorns, reearned, reharden, reordain, reynards, serranid, strander, unbarred, underarm, underran, unmarred, wanderer, wardenry.
	+3 letters: arraigned, bartender, carronade, coriander, cornbread, darkeners, debarring, firebrand, gardeners, germander, grandeurs, grandsire, grenadier, hardeners, infrareds, instarred, interlard, irredenta, irridenta, launderer, maunderer, nonreader, ordainers, overdrank, overdrawn, panderers, pardoners, partnered, preordain, prewarned, readorned, redrawing, referenda, refrained, regardant, regarding, regrading, regranted, rehardens, relearned, remainder, renatured, reordains, reprimand, rereading, retardant, retarding, retrained, rewarding, serenader, serranids, slanderer, sternward, stranders, unarmored, underarms, undercard, undergrad, underpart, underrate, underwear, unmarried, unreadier, unscarred, wanderers, warranted, wiredrawn.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

45 72 72 61 6E 64

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

. .-. .-. .- -. -..

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000101 01110010 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#69 &#114 &#114 &#97 &#110 &#100

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0045 0072 0072 0061 006E 0064

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
errand services	84	errand intime service.com	9
errand service	84	errand professional services	9
errand business	63	edmonton errand in service	8
starting an errand service	62	atlanta errand in service	8
asheville errand service	54	concierge errand services	7
errand service kit	48	errand running	6
denver errand services	40	elderly errand services	6
errand membership services	36	concierge errand service	5
errand running services	31	start an errand service	5
b b b b b b b b b b delivery demand errand errand errands services services services shopping	28	personal errand services	4
errand running service	27	starting a business as a errand service	4
b b errand list service services	20	buckhead errand service	4
act auto b b balancing concierge corporate errand running	18	business concierge errand	3
atlanta b b errand from ga in services switchboard.com	16	errand personal runner	3
errand	16	association concierge errand international	3
errand runner	15	cary errand running service	3
fool errand	12	errand raleigh running service	3
business errand running	10	durham errand running service	3
errand in service somewhere time	10	errand fresno running service	3
errand service business	10	b b b b errand ii part service	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Errand

Definition: Errand

Errand

Noun

Synonyms within Context: Errand

Business

Commission

Deception

Inutility

Messenger

News

Rashness

Unskillfulness

Crosswords: Errand

Modern Usage: Errand

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Errand

Books

Theater & Movies

Music

Image Slideshow: Errand

Illustrations:Errand

More images...

Photo Album: Errand

Use in Literature: Errand

Emma

Austen, Jane

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Non-Fiction Usage: Errand

Worker Rights

Cote d'Ivoire

Usage Frequency: Errand

Expressions: Errand

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Errand

errand services

errand intime service.com

errand service

errand professional services

errand business

edmonton errand in service

starting an errand service

atlanta errand in service

asheville errand service

concierge errand services

errand service kit

errand running

denver errand services

elderly errand services

errand membership services

concierge errand service

errand running services

start an errand service

b b b b b b b b b b delivery demand errand errand errands services services services shopping

personal errand services

errand running service

starting a business as a errand service

b b errand list service services

buckhead errand service

act auto b b balancing concierge corporate errand running

business concierge errand

atlanta b b errand from ga in services switchboard.com

errand personal runner

errand

association concierge errand international

errand runner

cary errand running service

fool errand

errand raleigh running service

business errand running

durham errand running service

errand in service somewhere time

errand fresno running service

errand service business

b b b b errand ii part service

Modern Translations: Errand

Afrikaan

Albanian

Arabic

Illustrations:
Errand