err on the side of

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

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To behave in a manner which favours or which is biased toward.
   • 1849, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 15, in The Sea Lions:

     Every man would prefer that the woman in whom he feels an interest should err on the side of bigotry rather than on that of what is called liberalism in points of religious belief.

   • 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 89:

     My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we must not err on the side of over-confidence.

   • 1893, George Gissing, “Discord of Leaders”, in The Odd Women […], volume II, London: Lawrence & Bullen […], →OCLC, page 68:

     But perhaps you tend to err on the side of severity. Perhaps you make too little allowance for human weakness.

   • 1914, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “On Style”, in On the Art of Writing:

     Let us err, then, if we err, on the side of liberty.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 347:

     She loved to read poetry and when she got a keepsake from Bertha Supple of that lovely confession album with the coralpink cover to write her thoughts in she laid it in the drawer of her toilettable which, though it did not err on the side of luxury, was scrupulously neat and clean.

2. To choose which mistake (err) will be perpetuated when all available options would result in different mistakes.

• Since the early 20th century, this expression is most commonly used in err on the side of caution.