be mistaken or incorrect; make a mistake:the judge had erred in ruling that the evidence was inadmissible
(often as adjective erring) sin; do wrong:he had been as solicitous as an erring husband
err on the right side
act so that the least harmful of possible mistakes or errors is the most likely to occur:last year’s boom was the result of a miscalculation, which erred on the right side
err on the side of
display more rather than less of (a specified quality) in one’s actions:it is better to err on the side of caution
to err is human, to forgive divine
proverb it is human nature to make mistakes oneself while finding it hard to forgive others.
