err on the side of caution
Verb
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Verb
- (idiomatic) To act in the least risky manner in a situation in which one is uncertain about the consequences.
- 1867 Jan. 15, "The Impeachment of the President—Probabilities and Possibilities," New York Times p. 4:
- They are all zealous to the last degree in support of the extreme policy. . . . They certainly will not err on the side of caution.
- 1976 Oct. 29, James J. Kilpatrick, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W-MLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UVgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3694,3063386&dq=err-on-the-side-of-caution Bureacracy Infects Drug Industry]," St. Petersburg Independent/Washington Star Syndicate, p. 23-A (retrieved 1 Oct 2008):
- In any uncertain situation, government tends to err on the side of caution and delay.
- 2008 Sept. 17, Kara Gammell, "Cash in on the high interest rates ↗," The Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 1 Oct. 2008):
- But many savers are more concerned with the safety of their deposits and are even spreading their money over several institutions to err on the side of caution.
- 1867 Jan. 15, "The Impeachment of the President—Probabilities and Possibilities," New York Times p. 4:
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002