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A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.] "A sort of shepherds." Spenser. "A sort of steers." Spenser. "A sort of doves." Dryden. "A sort of rogues." Massinger. A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. Chapman.…

ny relatively short period of time, whether a few hours, days, or weeks. Nothing new hass happened in this quarter, except the setting in of a severe spell of cold weather. Washington.

A division of a stake happening when two cards of the kind on which the stake is laid are dealt in the same turn.

became the chief staple of news. Whenever there was a rumor that any thing important had happened or was about to happen, people hastened thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain head. Macaulay.

To strike or happen (upon a person or thing) without design; to fall or light by chance; -- with on, upon, or against. Ovid stumbled, by some inadvertency, upon Livia in a bath. Dryden. Forth as she waddled in the brake, A gray goose stumbled on a snake. C. Smart.

To come under, as a support or stay; to happen. A future state must needs subvene to prevent the whole edifice from falling into ruin. Bp. Warburton.

Happening without previous notice or with very brief notice; coming unexpectedly, or without the common preparation; immediate; instant; speedy. "O sudden wo!" Chaucer. "For fear of sudden death." Shak. Sudden fear troubleth thee. Job xxii. 10.

hak. He is a presumptuous and superficial writer. Burke. That superficial judgment, which happens to be right without deserving to be so. J. H. Newman. -- Su`per*fi"cial*ly, adv. -- Su`per*fi"cial*ness, n.

thing additional or extraneous; to occur with reference or relation to something else; to happen upon or after something else; to be added; to take place; to happen. Such a mutual gravitation can never supervene to matter unless impressed by divine power. Bentley. A tyrany immediately supervened. Burke.…

Of or pertaining to compotations and merrymaking; happening where company is drinking together; as, symposiac meetings. Symposiac disputations amongst my acquaintance. Arbuthnot.

Of or pertaining to symptoms; happening in concurrence with something; being a symptom; indicating the existence of something else. Symptomatic of a shallow understanding and an unamiable temper. Macaulay.

Happening at, or belonging to, the same time; synchronous; simultaneous. Dr. H. More.

Happening at the same time; synchronous. Boyle. -- Syn*chron"ic*al*ly, adv.

Happening at the same time; simultaneous. -- Syn"chro*nous*ly, adv.

ke. "A team of dolphins." Spenser. To take his team and till the earth. Piers Plowman. It happened almost every day that coaches stuck fast, until a team of cattle could be procured from some neighboring farm to tug them out of the slough. Macaulay.

To betide; to happen. [Obs.] What should us tide of this new law Chaucer.

removal of things from one place to another; substitution of one thing for another. There happened certain translocations at the deluge. Woodward.

To happen or come to pass; to occur.

grandfather's grandfather, to recover lands of which he had been deprived by an abatement happening on the ancestor's death. Mozley & W.

Lasting three lays; also, happening every third day. [R.] Blount.