erratic

adjective

1. 1

   Unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent.

   Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.

   The V-2's directional system was notoriously erratic. In May 1947, a V-2 launched from White Sands Proving Ground headed south instead of north, missing downtown Juarez, Mexico, by 3 miles.

2. 2

   Deviating from normal opinions or actions; eccentric; odd.

   erratic conduct

   Investigators were careful not to rule out Bryce’s erratic behaviour in his final days, including the giveaways, the sudden breakup, and the hours spent parked by the side of the freeway. These factors pointed to a mental health crisis severe enough that he wanted to disappear.

noun

1. 1

   A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.

   The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic, but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks.

   During the last ice-age, massive stones were carried for miles by the scouring glaciers, only to be left, like passengers at the end of the line, when the glaciers retreated. Stranded in their new surroundings with rocks with which they share no common geology, their out-of-place-ness is evoked by their name: “erratics”.

2. 2

   Anything that has erratic characteristics.

Forms

plural

erratics

comparative

more erratic

superlative

most erratic