Word.ws English Dictionary

erring on the side of caution

erring on the side of caution is the present participle and gerund of err on the side of caution.

Meaning of err on the side of caution

Verb

err on the side of caution (third-person singular simple present errs on the side of caution, present participle erring on the side of caution, simple past and past participle erred on the side of caution)

  1. (idiomatic) To act in the least risky manner in a situation in which one is uncertain about the consequences.
    • They are all zealous to the last degree in support of the extreme policy. . . . They certainly will not err on the side of caution.1867 January 15, “The Impeachment of the President—Probabilities and Possibilities”, in New York Times, page 4

Questions about erring on the side of caution

What is erring on the side of caution the present participle and gerund of?
Erring on the side of caution is the present participle and gerund of err on the side of caution.

Words near erring on the side of caution in the dictionary

  1. Erriba
  2. Errickson
  3. Erricksons
  4. erring
  5. erring on the side of
  6. erring on the side of caution
  7. erringly
  8. errings
  9. Errington
  10. Erringtons
  11. Errinundra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: erring on the side of caution (page history and authors); err on the side of caution (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “erring on the side of caution.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/erring_on_the_side_of_caution. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.