writ of error
    n 1: a judicial writ from an appellate court ordering the court
         of record to produce the records of trial

Error \Er"ror\, n. [OF. error, errur, F. erreur, L. error, fr.
   errare to err. See Err.]
   1. A wandering; a roving or irregular course. [Obs.]
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            The rest of his journey, his error by sea. --B.
                                                  Jonson.
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   2. A wandering or deviation from the right course or
      standard; irregularity; mistake; inaccuracy; something
      made wrong or left wrong; as, an error in writing or in
      printing; a clerical error.
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   3. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false
      notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension.
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            His judgment was often in error, though his candor
            remained unimpaired.                  --Bancroft.
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   4. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or
      transgression; iniquity; fault. --Ps. xix. 12.
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   5. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and
      the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of
      double position.
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   6. (Mensuration)
      (a) The difference between an observed value and the true
          value of a quantity.
      (b) The difference between the observed value of a
          quantity and that which is taken or computed to be the
          true value; -- sometimes called residual error.
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   7. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record
      in matters of law or of fact.
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   8. (Baseball) A fault of a player of the side in the field
      which results in failure to put out a player on the other
      side, or gives him an unearned base.
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   Law of error, or Law of frequency of error (Mensuration),
      the law which expresses the relation between the magnitude
      of an error and the frequency with which that error will
      be committed in making a large number of careful
      measurements of a quantity.

   Probable error. (Mensuration) See under Probable.

   Writ of error (Law), an original writ, which lies after
      judgment in an action at law, in a court of record, to
      correct some alleged error in the proceedings, or in the
      judgment of the court. --Bouvier. Burrill.

   Syn: Mistake; fault; blunder; failure; fallacy; delusion;
        hallucination; sin. See Blunder.
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WRIT OF ERROR, practice. A writ issued out of a court of competent 
jurisdiction, directed to the judge of a court of record in which final 
judgment has been given, and commanding them, in some cases, themselves to 
examine the record; in others to send it to another court of appellate 
jurisdiction, therein named, to be examined in order that some alleged error 
in the proceeding may be corrected. Steph. Pl. 138; 2 Saund. 100, n. 1; Bac. 
Ab. Error, in pr. 
     2. The first is called a writ of error coram nobis or vobis. When an 
issue in fact has been decided, there is not in general any appeal except by 
motion for a new trial; and although a matter. of fact should exist which 
was not brought into the issue, as for example, if the defendant neglected 
to Plead a release, which he might have pleaded, this is no error in the 
proceedings, though a mistake of the defendant. Steph. Pl. 139. But there 
are some facts which affect the validity and regularity of the proceeding 
itself, and to remedy these errors the party in interest may sue out the 
writ of error coram vobis. The death of one of the parties at the 
commencement of the suit; the appearance of an infant in a personal action, 
by an attorney, and not by guardian; the coverture of either party, at the 
commencement of the suit, when her husband is not joined with her, are 
instances of this kind. 1 Saund. 101; 1 Arch. Pr. 212; 2 Tidd's Pr. 1033; 
Steph. Pl. 140 1 Browne's Rep. 75. 
     3. The second species is called, generally, writ of error, and is the 
more common. Its object is to review and correct an error of the law 
committed in the proceedings, which is not amendable, or cured at common 
law, or by some of the statutes of amendment or jeofail. Vide, generally, 
Tidd's Pr. ob. 43; Graham's Pr. B. 4, o. 1; Bac. Ab. Error; 1 Vern. 169; 
Yelv. 76; 1 Salk. 322; 2 Saund. 46, n. 6, and 101, n. 1; 3 Bl. Com. 405; 
Serg. Const. Law, ch. 5. 
     4. In the French law the demande en cassation is somewhat similar to 
our proceeding in error; according to some of the best writers on French 
law, it is considered as a new suit, and it is less an action between the 
original parties, than a question between the judgment and the law. It is 
not the action which is to be judged, but the judgment; "la demande en 
cassation est un nouveau proces, bien moins entre les parties qui figuraient 
dans le premier, qu'entre l'arret et la loi." Henrion de Pansey, de 
l'Autorite judiciare dans les gouvernemens monarchiques, p. 270, edit. in 8 
vols.; 6 Toull. n. 193. Ce n'est point le' proces qu'il s'agit de juger, 
mais le jugement. Ib. 
     5. A writ of error is in the nature of a suit or action, when it is to 
restore the party who obtains it to the possession of any thing which is 
withheld from him, not when its operation is entirely defensive. 3 Story. 
Const. Sec. 1721. And it is considered generally as a new action. 6 Port 9.