Accident
['æksɪdənt] or ['æksədənt]
Definition
(noun.) anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause; 'winning the lottery was a happy accident'; 'the pregnancy was a stroke of bad luck'; 'it was due to an accident or fortuity'.
(noun.) an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury.
Typed by Humphrey--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident.
(n.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
(n.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
(n.) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute.
(n.) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
(n.) Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident.
(n.) Unusual appearance or effect.
Checked by Horatio
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Casualty, chance, fortuity, mischance, misadventure, calamity, mishap, hap, hazard, contingency, CONTRETEMPS, unforeseen or fortuitous event.[2]. Property, quality, modification, affection, mode.
Edited by Gail
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Chance, fortuity, disaster, incident, adventure, casualty, hazard, contingency,calamity, misadventure, mishap
ANT:Law, purpose, appointment, ordainment, provision, preparation
Checked by Elton
Definition
n. that which happens: an unforeseen or unexpected event: chance: an unessential quality or property.—adj. Accident′al happening by chance: not essential.—n. anything not essential.—ns. Accident′alism Accidental′ity.—adv. Accident′ally.—The chapter of accidents the unforeseen course of events.
Checker: Lowell
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of an accident is a warning to avoid any mode of travel for a short period, as you are threatened with loss of life. For an accident to befall stock, denotes that you will struggle with all your might to gain some object and then see some friend lose property of the same value in aiding your cause.
Inputed by Billy
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws.
Checked by Ellen
Unserious Contents or Definition
A condition of affairs in which presence of mind is good, but absence of body better.
Editor: Madge
Examples
- At last he was happily got down without any accident, and then he began to beat Mr. Guppy with a hoop-stick in quite a frantic manner. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- A serious occurrence that might have resulted in accident drove him soon after from Canada, although the youth could hardly be held to blame for it. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- This accident caused some delay, but the other tubes were in the meantime progressing, and the completed bridge was opened for public traffic on the 21st of October, 1850. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- I laughed at the accident. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- In the fewest words, the Sergeant showed them the evidence of the footmarks, and told them that a fatal accident must have happened to her. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I was afraid to put it off till next day (the Friday); being in doubt lest some accident might happen in the interval. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about this accident of birth. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- By accident the noose fell squarely about the running ape's neck, bringing him to a sudden and surprising halt. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- The ball seemed so thrown into my hands by accident! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- After they had waited some time, straggling people who had heard of the accident began to come up; then the real help of implements began to arrive. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- It is impossible that I should escape this proving through the accident of a message. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- What though I was the victim of an extraordinary accident? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- The present question for us to decide is, whether I am wrongly attaching a meaning to a mere accident? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Long since had he given up any hope of rescue, except through accident. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Save by accident, out-of-school experience is left in its crude and comparatively irreflective state. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- I send it you now, because I apprehend some late accidents are likely to revive the contest between the two countries. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- But as men, personalities, they were just accidents, sporadic little unimportant phenomena. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Why not drift on in a series of accidents-like a picaresque novel? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Merely to leave everything to nature was, after all, but to negate the very idea of education; it was to trust to the accidents of circumstance. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- They are mere accidents so far as we are concerned. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Different accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- But my comfort was, that I observed such accidents very frequent, and little regarded. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- They say they do not have accidents on these French roads, and I think it must be true. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I should think you'll read the marriages, probably, miss, and the murders, and the accidents, and sich like? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The experiments are, therefore, sure to be watched with a great deal of interest, and it is probable that fewer accidents will occur from broken rails in the near future. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- One great source of accidents in this respect has been due to the necessity of the brakemen entering between the cars while they are in motion to couple them by hand. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Many of the most remarkable inventions are attributable to accidents noted by observing and inventive minds. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- From everything--from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all the material accidents. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Mention has already been made of office and other elevators, in which compressed air is an important factor in operating the same and for preventing accidents. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- It gave good results but for the accidents from headers, to which it was especially liable. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Edited by Glenn