Adjacent Words

Casualty definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CASUALTY, n.
1. Accident; that which comes by chance or without design, or without being foreseen; contingency.
2. An accident that produces unnatural death; and by a metonymy, death, or other misfortune, occasioned by an accident.
3. In Scots law, an emolument due from a vassal to his superior, beyond the stated yearly duties, upon certain casual events.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: someone injured or killed or captured or missing in a military engagement
2: someone injured or killed in an accident [syn: casualty, injured party]
3: an accident that causes someone to die [syn: fatal accident, casualty]
4: a decrease of military personnel or equipment

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: 15th century 1. archaic chance, fortune <losses that befall them by mere casualty — Sir Walter Raleigh> 2. serious or fatal accident ; disaster 3. a. a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action b. a person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed ; victim <the ex-senator was a casualty of the last election>

U.S. Military Dictionary

Any person who is lost to the organization by having been declared dead, duty status - whereabouts unknown, missing, ill, or injured. See also casualty category; casualty status; casualty type; duty status - whereabouts unknown; hostile casualty; nonhostile casualty. (JP 4-02)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a person killed or injured in a war or accident. 2 a thing lost or destroyed. 3 = casualty department. 4 an accident, mishap, or disaster. Phrases and idioms: casualty department (or ward) the part of a hospital where casualties are treated. Etymology: ME f. med.L casualitas (as CASUAL), after ROYALTY etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Casualty Cas"u*al*ty, n.; pl. Casualties. [F. casualit['e], LL. casualitas.] 1. That which comes without design or without being foreseen; contingency. Losses that befall them by mere casualty. --Sir W. Raleigh. 2. Any injury of the body from accident; hence, death, or other misfortune, occasioned by an accident; as, an unhappy casualty. 3. pl. (Mil. & Naval) Numerical loss caused by death, wounds, discharge, or desertion. Casualty ward, A ward in a hospital devoted to the treatment of injuries received by accident. Syn: Accident; contingency; fortuity; misfortune.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(casualties) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A casualty is a person who is injured or killed in a war or in an accident. Troops fired on demonstrators near the Royal Palace causing many casualties. N-COUNT 2. A casualty of a particular event or situation is a person or a thing that has suffered badly as a result of that event or situation. Fiat has been one of the greatest casualties of the recession. = victim N-COUNT: usu N of n 3. Casualty is the part of a hospital where people who have severe injuries or sudden illnesses are taken for emergency treatment. (BRIT; in AM, use emergency room) I was taken to casualty at St Thomas's Hospital.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Chance, fortuity, contingency hap, unforeseen event. 2. Accident, disaster, misfortune, calamity, mischance, catastrophe.

Moby Thesaurus

accident, adventure, blow, body count, calamity, casualties, cataclysm, catastrophe, chance hit, collision, contingency, contingent, contretemps, crack-up, crash, dead, death, disaster, fatal, fatal accident, fatalities, fatality, fluke, fortuity, freak accident, grief, hap, happening, happenstance, hazard, ill hap, injured, long odds, long shot, lucky shot, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap, missing, nasty blow, pileup, prey, shipwreck, shock, smash, smashup, staggering blow, statistic, tragedy, underdog, victim, violent death, wounded, wreck