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An accidental and favorable stroke at billiards (called a scratch in the United States); hence, any accidental or unexpected advantage; as, he won by a fluke. [Cant, Eng.] A. Trollope.

To convene; to gossip; to meet accidentally. [Scot.] Jamieson. Within that circle he forgathered with many a fool. Wilson.

Accident; chance; casualty. D. Forbes (1750).

The arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner; chance; accident; luck; hap; also, the personified or deified power regarded as determining human success, apportioning happiness and unhappiness, and distributing arbitrarily or fortuitously the lots of life. 'T is more by fortune, lady, than by merit. Shak. O…

of that famous mathematician, Mr. Harriot. Wood. To come to grief, to meet with calamity, accident, defeat, ruin, etc., causing grief; to turn out badly. [Colloq.]

A tussock moth (Ocneria dispar) native of the Old World, but accidentally introduced into eastern Massachusetts about 1869, where its caterpillars have done great damage to fruit, shade, and forest trees of many kinds. The male gypsy moth is yellowish brown, the female white, and larger than the male. In both sexes the…

-- said of a gun having a cock or striker concealed from sight, and out of the way of an accidental touch.

uddenly or unexpectedly; also, the manner of occurrence or taking place; chance; fortune; accident; casual event; fate; luck; lot. Chaucer. Whether art it was or heedless hap. Spenser. Cursed be good haps, and cursed be they that build Their hopes on haps. Sir P. Sidney. Loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrow…

Extra hazard; chance; accident; random. We take our principles at haphazard, upon trust. Locke.

By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be. Lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Acts v. 39.

The uncertain result of throwing a die; hence, a fortuitous event; chance; accident; casualty. I will stand the hazard of the die. Shak.

n or part which has escaped from its natural cavity, and projects through some natural or accidental opening in the walls of the latter; as, hernia of the brain, of the lung, or of the bowels. Hernia of the abdominal viscera in most common. Called also rupture. Strangulated hernia, a hernia so tightly compressed in som…

heck; to retard; to obstruct; to bring to a full stop; - - often followed by from; as, an accident hindered the coach; drought hinders the growth of plants; to hinder me from going. Them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke xi. 52. I hinder you too long. Shak.

eing destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent. Life . . . is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.

Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous. As the ordinary course of common affairs is disposed of by general laws, so likewise men's rarer incident necessities and utilities should be with special equity…

Happening, as an occasional event, without regularity; coming without design; casual; accidental; hence, not of prime concern; subordinate; collateral; as, an incidental conversation; an incidental occurrence; incidental expenses. By some, religious duties . . . appear to be regarded . . . as an incidental business. Ro…

ction supposed to be drawn in the tangent plane to any surface, and used to determine the accidents of curvature of the surface at the point of contact. The curve is similar to the intersection of the surface with a parallel to the tangent plane and indefinitely near it. It is an ellipse when the curvature is synclasti…

pledge; assurance. [Obs.] The most acceptable insurance of the divine protection. Mickle. Accident insurance, insurance against pecuniary loss by reason of accident to the person. -- Endowment insurance or assurance, a combination of life insurance and investment such that if the person upon whose life a risk is taken…

ds and buildings are insured against fire or water; persons are insured against sickness, accident, or death; and sometimes hazardous debts are insured.

Done by intention or design; intended; designed; as, the act was intentional, not accidental.