1. Making no error or mistake; not going or leading astray in judgment or opinion.
c. 1660. South, Serm. (1697), I. 254. They believed his Miracles upon the Credit of constant unerring Tradition.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 565. With sure Foresight, and with unerring Doom, He sees what is, and was, and is to come.
1732. Challoner (title), The Unerring Authority of the Catholic Church in matters of Faith.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, IV. 324. I know this vision sent From Heaven, and feel of its unerring truth.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 565. The unerring principles of political economy.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 32. The unerring guides of ourselves and of those who were under us.
absol. 1813. Coleridge, Remorse, III. ii. 36. I breath’d to the Unerring Permitted prayers.
2. Corresponding with the utmost exactness or closeness to some standard or aim.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 39. The unerring exactness we find in Animal formations.
1684. J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 166. Therefore I thought fit to lay down such Unerring Rules, as [etc.].
1710. Prior, Examiner, 7 Sept. The Works of learned Men are weighed here by the unerring Ballance of Party.
1775. Tyrwhitt, Chaucer’s Cant. T., IV. 91. An operation, which every Ballad-monger in our days … is known to perform with the most unerring exactness.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xiv. The Son of the Mist again led the way, with an unerring precision.
1867. Buckle, Civiliz. (1873), II. viii. 434. We may trace with unerring certainty the steps [etc.].
3. Not going astray from the intended mark; certain, sure: a. Of missiles or other weapons.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XII. (1626), 240. With that, th’ vnerring dart … [he] flung.
1712. Spect., No. 527, ¶ 3. Procris … made her Husband … a Present of an unerring Javelin.
c. 1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Sec. Poem, 12. Goddess, whose unerring dart Stops the lynx, or flying hart.
b. Of aim, agents or agencies, etc.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XII. 712. One dart he drew, And with unerring aim, and utmost vigour, threw.
c. 1709. Prior, 2nd Hymn Callimachus, 127. Thy unerring Hand elanc’d Another, and another Dart.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, V. v. 9. By the unerring wrath of Jove, Unerring shall his vengeance prove.
1801. Scott, Glenfinlas, ii. How matchless was thy broad claymore, How deadly thine unerring bow!
1849. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 46. He was considered an unerring shot.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 112. Occasionally striking with unerring aim at its prey.
