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Falling or coming between; happening accidentally. [Obs.] Boyle.

Inward; internal; hence, true; genuine; real; essential; inherent; not merely apparent or accidental; -- opposed to extrinsic; as, the intrinsic value of gold or silver; the intrinsic merit of an action; the intrinsic worth or goodness of a person. He was better qualified than they to estimate justly the intrinsic valu…

ative. Read the Countess of Pembroke's "Arcadia," a gallant legendary full of pleasurable accidents. James I.

The state of being liable; as, the liability of an insurer; liability to accidents; liability to the law.

ore or less probable; -- with to and an infinitive or noun; as, liable to slip; liable to accident.

Damaged by accidental exposure to light; light-fogged; -- said of plates or films.

-- Local color. (a) (Paint.) The color which belongs to an object, and is not caused by accidental influences, as of reflection, shadow, etc. (b) (Literature) Peculiarities of the place and its inhabitants where the scene of an action or story is laid. -- Local option, the right or obligation of determining by popul…

To part with unintentionally or unwillingly, as by accident, misfortune, negligence, penalty, forfeit, etc.; to be deprived of; as, to lose money from one's purse or pocket, or in business or gaming; to lose an arm or a leg by amputation; to lose men in battle. Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favori…

That which happens without human design or forethought; chance; accident; hazard; fortune; fate. But save my life, which lot before your foot doth lay. Spenser.

s nothing besides matter and motion; so that all must be performed either by mechanism or accident. Bentley.

Mischance; misfortune; ill lick; unlucky accident; ill adventure. Chaucer. Homicide by misadventure (Law), homicide which occurs when a man, doing a lawful act, without any intention of injury, unfortunately kills another; -- called also excusable homicide. See Homicide. Blackstone.

Bad fortune or luck; calamity; an evil accident; disaster; mishap; mischance. Consider why the change was wrought, You 'll find his misfortune, not his fault. Addison.

Evil accident; ill luck; misfortune; mischance. Chaucer. Secure from worldly chances and mishaps. Shak.

ssing action or being, as positive, possible, hypothetical, etc., without regard to other accidents, such as time, person, number, etc.; as, the indicative mood; the infinitive mood; the subjunctive mood. Same as Mode.

teration; subject to change; changeable in form, qualities, or nature. Things of the most accidental and mutable nature. South.

ike at the precise point or time. The just season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved. L'Estrange.

is screwed up tightly against another nut on the same bolt or screw, in order to prevent accidental unscrewing of the first nut. -- Nut buoy. See under Buoy. -- Nut coal, screened coal of a size smaller than stove coal and larger than pea coal; -- called also chestnut coal. -- Nut crab (Zoöl.), any leucosoid crab o…

A species of demoniac enthusiasm or possession coming upon one who had accidentally looked upon a nymph; ecstasy. [R.] De Quincey. The nympholepsy of some fond despair. Byron.

dentally brings to pass an event, without being its efficient cause or sufficient reason; accidental or incidental cause. Her beauty was the occasion of the war. Dryden.

Produced by accident; as, the occasional origin of a thing. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne. Occasional cause (Metaph.), some circumstance preceding an effect which, without being the real cause, becomes the occasion of the action of the efficient cause; thus, the act of touching gunpowder with fire is the occasional, but not the…