Casual
['kæʒjʊəl;-zj-] or ['kæʒʊəl]
Definition
(adj.) hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough; 'a casual (or cursory) inspection failed to reveal the house's structural flaws'; 'a passing glance'; 'perfunctory courtesy' .
(adj.) marked by blithe unconcern; 'an ability to interest casual students'; 'showed a casual disregard for cold weather'; 'an utterly insouciant financial policy'; 'an elegantly insouciant manner'; 'drove his car with nonchalant abandon'; 'was polite in a teasing nonchalant manner' .
(adj.) not showing effort or strain; 'a difficult feat performed with casual mastery'; 'careless grace' .
(adj.) appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions; 'casual clothes'; 'everyday clothes' .
(adj.) occurring or appearing or singled out by chance; 'seek help from casual passers-by'; 'a casual meeting'; 'a chance occurrence' .
(adj.) without or seeming to be without plan or method; offhand; 'a casual remark'; 'information collected by casual methods and in their spare time' .
(adj.) occurring from time to time; 'casual employment'; 'a casual correspondence with a former teacher'; 'an occasional worker' .
Checked by Joseph--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Happening or coming to pass without design, and without being foreseen or expected; accidental; fortuitous; coming by chance.
(a.) Coming without regularity; occasional; incidental; as, casual expenses.
(n.) One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
Edited by Gillian
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Accidental, fortuitous, incidental, contingent, that happens by chance.
Checker: Stella
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Accidental, occasional, incidental, contingent, unforeseen, fortuitous
ANT:Regular, ordinary, systematic, periodic, certain, fixed,[See CASUALTY]
Typed by Corinne
Definition
adj. accidental: unforeseen: occasional.—n. a chance or occasional visitor labourer pauper &c.—n. Cas′ualism the belief that chance governs all things.—adv. Cas′ually in a casual manner.—n. Cas′ualty that which falls out: an accident: a misfortune: (pl.) losses of a military force by death desertion &c.: an incidental charge or payment.—Casualties of superiority in the feudal law of Scotland such emoluments arising to the superior as depend on uncertain events—those of non-entry relief or composition and escheat alone remaining but considerably modified by the Conveyancing Act of 1874.—Casualty ward the ward in a hospital in which accidents are treated; Casual ward a ward set apart for the use of those who are only occasionally in destitution.
Editor: Natasha
Examples
- For sound, whether it be the noise of an oarlock or a companion’s casual remark, can be heard more than four times as easily by the fish in the water beneath than it can up above in the air. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The circumstance on which my story rests was suggested in casual conversation. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Why not be casual, drifting along, taking all for what it was worth? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- From within the city neither shout nor cry, nor aught except the casual howling of a dog, broke the noon-day stillness. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- So I am no romantic glorifier of the Spanish Woman nor did I ever think of a casual piece as anything much other than a casual piece in any country. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- It will be remembered that many of the earlier experiments were based on the use of strips of platinum; while other rare metals were the subject of casual trial. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- There is a variety of testimony to the effect that not only musical sounds, but stray words and phrases, were actually transmitted with mediocre, casual success. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- I, as my nature prompted, would not prognosticate evil, but explained it away as a mere casual incident. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- A casual visitor might suppose this place to be a temple dedicated to the Genius of Seediness. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- She broke off, still twinkling at him, and asked, with the casual irrelevance of old age: Now, why in the world didn't you marry my little Ellen? Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- The name of the ticker came through the casual remark of an observer to whom the noise was the most striking feature of the mechanism. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- What is casual and inconstant gives but little joy, and less pride. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Then Gudrun asked, in a voice that was quite cool and casual, as if resuming a casual conversation: 'Was the girl a model? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- They'll make you pay, as fur as your money will go,' pursued the Deputy, 'for your relief as a Casual and for your being passed to your Parish. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The field of optics is so large that many interesting branches can receive only a casual mention. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Typed by Geraldine