Other forms: errands
An errand is a small trip out to get one thing done — post, bank, or bread. Run an errand, on an errand, errands to do.
It is short and single-purpose, which is what makes errands so easy to batch and so tiring when they are not. A fool's errand is a pointless journey. Note that the Old English word meant a message, and an errand was carrying one before it was fetching anything.
1nounerrandA small trip out to get one thing done.
“I have a few errands to run, like posting a letter and picking up bread.”
errand is a short trip.
Also accepted in games: errands
Old English aerende means a message or mission. The sense of a short trip came later.
Proto-West Germanic
*ārundī — message, errand
Old English
ǣrende
Middle English
erande
English, today
errand
From Middle English erande, erende, from Old English ǣrende, from Proto-West Germanic ārundī (“message, errand”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA