Adjacent Words

Lottery definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

LOT'TERY, n. [See Lot.]
1. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by chance, or the distribution itself. Lotteries are often authorized by law, but many good men deem them immoral in principle, and almost all men concur in the opinion that their effects are pernicious.
2. Allotment. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: something that is regarded as a chance event; "the election was just a lottery to them"
2: players buy (or are given) chances and prizes are distributed by casting lots [syn: lottery, drawing]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -teries) Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle French loterie, from Middle Dutch, from lot lot; akin to Old English hlot lot Date: 1567 1. a. a drawing of lots in which prizes are distributed to the winners among persons buying a chance b. a drawing of lots used to decide something 2. an event or affair whose outcome is or seems to be determined by chance

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random. 2 an enterprise, process, etc., whose success is governed by chance (life is a lottery). Etymology: prob. f. Du. loterij (as LOT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lottery Lot"ter*y, n.; pl. Lotteries. [Lot + -ery, as in brewery, bindery.] 1. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance; esp., a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, and the rest of tickets are blanks. Fig. : An affair of chance. Note: The laws of the United States and of most of the States make lotteries illegal.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(lotteries) 1. A lottery is a type of gambling game in which people buy numbered tickets. Several numbers are then chosen, and the people who have those numbers on their tickets win a prize. ...the national lottery. N-COUNT 2. If you describe something as a lottery, you mean that what happens depends entirely on luck or chance. Which judges are assigned to a case is always a bit of a lottery. N-SING: a N