See Also: Stroke (apoplexy, cerebral accident, cerebrovascular accident, CVA, cerebral apoplexy)(health)
accident(dictionary)
accident(dictionary)
accident(medicine)
INEVITABLE ACCIDENT(law)
Chernobyl accident(encyclopedia)
accident and emergency(dictionary)
accident prone(dictionary)
CHANCE, accident(law)
Cerebrovascular accident(health)

accident (iou)



accident noun. LME.
[Old & mod. French from Latin accident- pres. ppl stem of accidere happen, from ad AC- + cadere to fall: see -ENT.]
I. A thing that happens.
An event. obsolete in gen. sense. LME.
b. An event that is without apparent cause or unexpected; an unfortunate event, esp. one causing injury or damage. LME.
the chapter of accidents the unforeseen course of events.
C. Day Our race may be an accident, in a meaningless universe. M. Spark She..had been killed in an accident.
Chance, fortune. LME.
by accident by chance, unintentionally.
S. Johnson Nature probably has some part in human characters and accident has some part.
Medicine. An unfavourable symptom. LME-L17.
A casual appearance or effect. LME-M18.
An irregularity in the landscape. M19.
J. R. Lowell Accidents of open green.
II. Something present but not necessarily so, and therefore non-essential.
Logic. A property or quality not essential to a substance or object. LME.
Grammar. A change of form to which words are subject, as to express number, case, gender, etc. Usu. in pl. arch. M16.
gen. A non-essential accompaniment; a mere accessory. E17.
Disraeli With all the brilliant accidents of birth, and beauty, and fortune. W. W. Greg The 'accidents' of presentation,..the spelling, punctuation, and other scribal or typographical details.
Comb.: accident-prone adjective predisposed or likely to cause or suffer an accident.
accidented adjective characterized by accidents L19.
accidently adverb (now rare exc. as misspelling) accidentally LME.