Definition of accident in English:

accident

noun ˈaksɪd(ə)ntˈæksədənt

1An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
he had an accident at the factory
mass noun if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness
Example sentencesExamples
- In the most favourable situation, there is only material damage, but often an accident causes physical injuries or even death.
- You haven't been involved in any accidents or injuries at work?
- I have heard of injuries from similar accidents, but none as severe as this.
- However the damages and injuries from the accidents so far this year surpassed those of last year.
- Air accident investigators have launched an investigation following the incident on Sunday morning.
- Also, every year there are a number of serious accidents and injuries involving children who wander unauthorised onto constructions sites.
- Doctors say he is making satisfactory progress after suffering extensive injuries in the accident five weeks ago today.
- Co-ordinator of the scheme, Inspector Mick Melia, believes it has played a big role in cutting down accidents, injuries and fatalities.
- Your liability coverage will protect you if you cause an accident that results in damage or injuries, up to the limits of your policy.
- Over a three-year period there has to have been four accidents involving deaths and serious injuries and eight accidents where victims have needed medical treatment.
- He said data from accidents and damage incidents is collected and used to tailor officer and staff training to improve safety and cut down costs.
- Each year, more than 37,000 women die from accidents.
- There were also a number of other accidents resulting lesser injuries or damage to gliders.
- Air accident investigators are probing the cause of the incident.
- Currently, surgeons are forced to use grafts taken from other areas of a patient's body to replace skin damaged in burns and accidents, but this is difficult in patients who are badly injured.
- Most of these accidents and injuries are irreversible, and a company cannot hand out a sincere apology and have the victim know for certain that they mean it - so they express their remorse with a cheque.
- As noted earlier, the NTSB defines any event that led to human injury, death, or serious equipment damage as an accident.
- Air accident investigators say the incident was ‘serious’ and are checking instructions from air traffic control.
- Except Lucio just had a bone removed from his hip and put into his wrist, to help him recover from a motorcycle accident injury, so it's down to me and Dave to cook.
- Casualties who suffered less serious injuries in accidents also fell from 492 to 306 in Hampshire and from 96 to 80 in Southampton.
Synonyms
mishap, misfortune, misadventure, mischance, unfortunate incident, injury, disaster, tragedy, catastrophe, contretemps, calamity, blow, trouble, problem, difficulty
technical casualty
1. 1.1 A crash involving road or other vehicles.
  four people were killed in a road accident
  Example sentencesExamples
  ‘All staff responding to road traffic accidents should thoroughly search vehicles,’ he said.
  Each year more than 200 people are rescued from vehicles involved in road accidents in North Yorkshire, a greater number than those rescued from fires.
  These are some of the kind of vehicles contributing to the accidents on the roads.
  Within recent weeks there have been several minor car accidents on the country roads.
  In the last year I've witnessed four road accidents where only one vehicle was involved.
  A teenage driver was killed when his car collided head-on with a heavy goods vehicle in a horrific accident on a major road near York.
  There has been a 20% rise in the numbers of people killed in road accidents involving police cars.
  Both Salford and Manchester city councils say there are currently unaware of any pending claims resulting from road accidents involving cars on tram lines.
  In 1983, this 25-year-old woman was involved in a car accident on a Missouri road that left her in a vegetative state.
  But in 1971 doctors had thought she would not live after being critically injured in a car accident in Thornton Road.
  Cameras are only ever installed for public safety reasons at sites which have a history of fatal accidents or serious injuries over the previous three years, along with documented evidence of speeding.
  I can guarantee that all the people who have been rescued from fires, or cut free from wrecked vehicles at road traffic accidents, know our true worth.
  During his career, he has attended road accidents, air crashes, forest fires and blazing thatched cottages.
  He suffered no injuries in the accident, and his lorry was left with only minor damage.
  A campaign has been launched to reduce the speed limit on a road following an accident where a car landed on its roof in a field.
  But it has been proved that actually defective vehicles have contributed to accidents on Zambian roads.
  And special squads of doctors are being set up to go out to the scene of road traffic accidents to look after crash victims.
  A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between skid resistance and road vehicle accidents.
  Currently the only call-outs that Grassington does not cover are road traffic accidents and aircraft crashes because it does not have the specialist cutting equipment required.
  A stretch of the N7 east of Naas was the location for another two fatal accidents with 34 other accidents causing injury.
  Synonyms
  crash, collision, smash, bump, car crash, car accident, road accident, traffic accident, road traffic accident, RTA, multiple crash, multiple collision
  rail accident, derailment
  air accident, air crash
  North American wreck
  informal smash-up, pile-up, shunt
  British informal prang
2. 1.2euphemistic An incidence of incontinence by a child or animal.
  he had a little accident, but I washed his shorts out
2An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.
the pregnancy was an accident
it is no accident that Manchester has produced more than its fair share of professional comics
Example sentencesExamples
- As a result, they welcomed successful accidents and chance events.
- Thus, accidents or chance events function as sites around which narratives of individual difference can collocate.
- Yet the war did not really result from bad luck or accident; beneath a contingent process lay profound causes.
- As soon as you examine the alternative you see what good fortune this accident of human demographics has bestowed on us.
- Through the fortunate accident of having a tedious instructor I had gained a year!
- Perhaps it was no accident that the two events coincided, since the association between oysters and sex has been so hackneyed as to become an embarrassing cliché.
- He got hold of the property by the merest accident, and as soon as he did he began his work by attacking three unfortunate orphans on the estate.
- Hegel explicitly denies - and it would in any case be quite out of keeping with his whole line of thought - that the direction of history is some kind of fortunate accident.
- For too long we have regarded the extinction of Neanderthals as a chance historical accident.
- And contingency, accident, and chance have their role to play in the development of life's web.
- Another chance for happy accidents that can change the course of history.
- If life is very much a matter of chance - and of accident, then it follows that it is people not doctrines who count.
- Was the wrong button on somebody's computer, which brought events to light, an accident or deliberate?
- There are no accidents, only nature exercising her supremacy.
- Perhaps it is no accident that this event was held in a teaching institution.
- It is an accident that my ancestors smuggled a lot of confiscated gold out of Nazi Germany when they negotiated safe passage from the Vatican.
- Systematicity may exist in connectionist architectures, but where it exists, it is no more than a lucky accident.
- Gogol came to have his name by accident, but that accident set in motion a series of events that would demarcate the history of a family.
- Denis Beckett treks to the festival to reflect on the accidents, chances and coincidences that shape the world we know.
- Such a culture cannot accept that accidents - in nature just as in social life - are just that, unintended and coincidental.
- It's no accident that continental systems have more money and more resources: patients choose to spend their money on health because they can see that it is put to good to use.
Synonyms
chance, mere chance, coincidence, twist of fate, freak, hazard
piece of good fortune, (bit of) luck, (bit of) good luck, fluke, happy chance
serendipity, fate, fortuity, fortune, providence
North American happenstance
1. 2.1mass noun The working of fortune; chance.
  members belong to the House of Lords through hereditary right or accident of birth
  Example sentencesExamples
  By accident it was found to stimulate hair growth and a topical lotion was developed for men.
  Although Colin Byrne was hooked on golf from an early age his transformation into one of the world's leading caddies was more accident than destiny.
  By accident of history and geography, the balance of seats in Parliament never accurately reflects the balance of votes cast.
  By accident he discovered a knack for ballet and after battling familial prejudice won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet school.
  The best ways to find a shoe tree are luck, accident, or word of mouth.
  Some of the greatest discoveries in history resulted by chance or accident and many as an unexpected periphery to the original intent.
  An accident of birth like ethnic origins, or an illness or disability or sexual preference, have been endowed with tremendous significance.
  By mere accident of birth I happen to be British.
  All to make sure that the children get the opportunities they were denied by mere accident of birth.
  By accident of birth, most, but not all American leaders, were born in the United States.
  By accident, the modern supermax prison had been invented.
  That's the real lesson I learned in East Timor: that as an accident of birth some of us have been handed fortunate lives.
  For the other 90 per cent, it is viewed at best as quaint, but more often as a monstrous and grotesque accident of birth.
  And so now by pure accident of birth, I'm alive at a time where science is about to figure this out.
  A child's accident of birth should not preclude a broad, critical, tolerant education.
  By accident, though, Clancy came close to the ideal because he suppressed personal conceits and put his body on the line for the benefit of others.
  By accident, by fate, by the meandering path that is parenthood, we become experts at things we thought we had no business knowing.
  Life formed through a fantastic combination of random chances and evolutionary accidents.
  Of course nepotism is a wonderful thing, and James is to be congratulated for making the most of this happy accident of birth.
  An accident of birth made me native to New York City where I grew but didn't flourish.
  Success is not a matter of chance, or an accident of birth.
  Synonyms
  fortuitously, accidentally, coincidentally, by chance, by coincidence, by a fluke, unintentionally, inadvertently
  unwittingly, unknowingly, unawares, unconsciously
  by mistake, mistakenly
3Philosophy
(in Aristotelian thought) a property of a thing which is not essential to its nature.
Example sentencesExamples
- The sensory qualities of such an object are therefore no more than passing accidents, through which its essence is dimly and confusedly perceived.
- It does not tell me that I am a substance (that is, an independently existing object) as opposed to an accident or property.
- Therefore, this crucial distinction between substance and accidents does not apply.
- The new element is existence, which Avicenna regarded as an accident, a property of things.
- It took me a long time to see any form of rhetoric as more than trickery which played upon the accidents of language.
- Sounds do have certain mathematically expressible accidents, but the science of proportions does not establish the substance or nature of sounds.
- It is only when we call it ‘black’ that we introduce a new entity into the structure, an accident.

Phrases

accident and emergency

A hospital department concerned with the provision of immediate treatment to people who are seriously injured in an accident or who are suddenly taken seriously ill.
Example sentencesExamples
- He first visited the radiology department before moving on to accident and emergency and a cardiac ward.
- These issues should be addressed in a setting other than the busy, pressured atmosphere of accident and emergency or acute wards.
- I cannot thank the staff of accident and emergency enough for their care of me.
- Even in accident and emergency those GP consultation models could be useful.
- Essex Rivers NHS Trust is also struggling to hit tough target treatment times in accident and emergency.
- However, more patients required accident and emergency or out of hours care.
- The patient is believed to have visited the accident and emergency department of a local hospital after feeling unwell.
- Some years ago, I worked as a senior house officer in accident and emergency.
- A police station has been set up next to the waiting room in accident and emergency at the Royal Bolton Hospital.
- An ambulance was called, and here they were in accident and emergency.
- This, however, contradicts our anecdotal impression from accident and emergency and fracture clinics.
- A 42 year old man with diabetes presented to accident and emergency with intermittent vomiting for three days.
- The boy was treated in accident and emergency before being examined by a consultant paediatrician.
- The highest number of claims are in anaesthetics, accident and emergency and obstetrics and gynaecology.
- She was rushed to Broomfield Hospital's accident and emergency but died after her breathing problems got worse.
- The driver of another car involved in the accident was taken to accident and emergency at the hospital.
- When I was a senior house officer working in accident and emergency I was asked to take a telephone call from a patient wanting advice.
- The man who was taken to hospital was discharged after receiving treatment in the accident and emergency unit.
- They dried him off as best they could and took him to accident and emergency at the Medway Maritime hospital in Gillingham.
- It is not appropriate to go to accident and emergency as an alternative to your GP.

an accident waiting to happen

1A potentially disastrous situation, typically caused by negligent or faulty procedures.
Example sentencesExamples
- We are really angry because this is an accident waiting to happen and I'm sure that it will happen again.
- He has been corresponding with North Vancouver District for 16 months attempting to get some sort of pedestrian control on the stretch of road which he thinks is an accident waiting to happen.
- This is an accident waiting to happen and if this dog does attack a child then I hope the judge can live with his decision.
- ‘It was an accident waiting to happen,’ he said.
- The situation is an accident waiting to happen and there are already frequent prangs and bumps around the junction.
- With all the kids in the park it will be mayhem - an accident waiting to happen.
- IT MAY be slap bang in the middle of a shipping channel and regarded as an accident waiting to happen - but the city's controversial swing bridge is nearing completion.
- In an editorial, the paper said it was an accident waiting to happen and urged aviation authorities to re-examine their safety procedures.
- The situation was an accident waiting to happen.
- But that stretch of road is awful, an accident waiting to happen.
- The Ballitore Hill junction that leads from the busy N9 motor-way into the village of Ballitore, is according to one local resident, an accident waiting to happen.
- ‘His death was, in my judgment, the result of an accident waiting to happen in circumstances where there was a clear and foreseeable risk of injury or worse,’ said Judge Paul Hoffman.
- It's an accident waiting to happen, particularly with the amount of small children in this area,’ she added.
- While the tragedy was an accident, it was an accident waiting to happen.
- The road is a busy, sweeping bend and although you couldn't describe it as an accident blackspot, people are concerned that the state of the road at present is an accident waiting to happen.
- As I have said in recent weeks, this is an accident waiting to happen and the recent rain has made the ground slippy and dangerous for even the nimblest of people.
- You would think anyone would immediately recognize the situation as an accident waiting to happen.
- The exit from there is very limited so we've ended up with another traffic hazard which is an accident waiting to happen.
- Ward councillor Tim Young said: ‘It is a death trap and an accident waiting to happen.’
- Mr Baker said: ‘This has been an ongoing problem for years and is an accident waiting to happen.’
1. 1.1informal A person certain to cause trouble.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Idiots like this are an accident waiting to happen and, unfortunately, these accidents rarely affect just the drivers concerned.
  Johnson was an accident waiting to happen and the big central defender, Robert Huth, who suffered at right-back against Bayern Munich, switched to the left where he looked even more uncomfortable and uncertain.
  You have been an accident waiting to happen and have placed many of your fellow citizens in grave danger.

accidents will happen in the best regulated families

proverb However careful you try to be, it is inevitable that some unfortunate or unforeseen events will occur.
problems like these should not occur, but accidents will happen
Example sentencesExamples
- When you are the world's policeman, accidents will happen.
- Although accidents will happen, only we, the road users, can reduce them.
- Sometimes these things just happen as not even one method of contraception is 100% reliable, so accidents will happen, unfortunately!
- Yes, we regret the loss of four lives, but throughout the history of war, accidents will happen, innocents will be killed.
- As per the Rule - 101 in the kid book, accidents will happen.
- ‘They have a structured training system but, at the end of the day, any training system run by human beings is subject to accidents, and accidents will happen,’ said Mr Brownson.
- To have exchanged phone numbers and words would have been expected and if, as a result, Cole had ended up playing for Chelsea - well, accidents will happen.

by accident

Unintentionally; by chance.
she didn't get where she is today by accident
nomadic hunters probably ended up on the new continent by accident
Example sentencesExamples
- Renee Geyer enjoys a career that's spanned three decades but it all began by accident.
- Of course, the chances of this happening by accident are literally a hundred million billion to one.
- She told the Citizen she became a goalkeeper more by accident than design.
- The assailants were possibly in the building and the bodyguard came upon them by accident.
- They discovered this entirely by accident, when a fire devastated their home.
- Detectives, who are still hunting the gunman, believe the shot may have been fired by accident.
- The other issue Jon raises is knowing whether people were shot by accident or on purpose.
- Liverpool have stumbled into next season's Champions League almost by accident.
- That was the one I actually tried watching, but I kept missing episodes by accident.
- But when Santa leaves him an extra present by accident Julian realises he will have to give it back.
- Today I managed to fulfill one of my lifes ambitions, and almost by accident.
- I got into recruitment by accident and stayed for 11 years before setting up Kite.
- I might have pulled my front brake by accident, which is why I went over the front, but I don't know.
- He tries to put his hand on her knee but, afraid of seeming too forward, pretends he's done it by accident.
- He became a singer by accident after getting on stage to sing at a club.
- Quite by accident, Weir had stumbled on something so fulfilling that she devoted hours of her spare time to it.
- In truth, it was more by accident than design but it was a lucky chance which established his fame and fortune.
- The orchestra first came to Marlborough last December by accident last year.
- It is clear that most are set off by accident: by the wind, by being badly installed, by nothing at all.
- The family were involved in a road-rage nightmare after wandering into Ilford by accident.

without accident

Safely.
he was able to stop the train without accident
Example sentencesExamples
- I know that's not a good thing, but at least my hypnotized mind knew the way home and how to get there without accident, right?
- In December the air group was only able to fly on 17 days but managed 630 sorties without accident.
- The landing was hazardous, but we made it without accident.
- The rest of the day passed without accident or incident, Graham engaged on his final one-sheet list of tiny finishing jobs and me trying without much success to get my task-list under the same level of control.
- The greatest financial outlay required is on equipment, which may include small-scale crusher-destemmer, press, and an adequate supply of fermentation vessels, which allow the carbon dioxide to escape without accident.
- They managed their little boat well and without accident.
- En route they encountered 14 ditches, all cleared without accident.
- In answer to that, since 1967, I have driven about three million miles without accident, or insurance claim I might add.
- I waved it away quickly so that I could drive without accident.
- I passed on the little pots of paint, mainly because I was fearful that my fingers aren't up to the job of opening them without accident, and picked up a fibre-tip pen and my little watercolour box instead.
- In a 24-hour period, 1,398 flights delivered over 13,000 tons of coal without accident or injury.

Origin

Late Middle English (in the general sense 'an event'): via Old French from Latin accident- 'happening', from the verb accidere, from ad- 'towards, to' + cadere 'to fall'.

An accident was originally ‘an event, something that happens’, not necessarily a mishap. It came into English via Old French, ultimately from Latin cadere, meaning ‘to fall’, which also gave us words such as cadaver (Late Middle English) ‘someone fallen’, chance, decay (Late Middle English) ‘fall away’, incident (Late Middle English) ‘fall upon’ so ‘happen’; and occasion (Late Middle English). The idea of an event ‘falling’ remains in the English word befall (Old English). Later the meaning of accident evolved into ‘something that happens by chance’, as in the phrase a happy accident. By the 17th century the modern meaning had become established in the language. The full form of the proverb accidents will happen, which dates from the early 19th century, is accidents will happen in the best-regulated families. According to Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1850): ‘Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by…the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they must be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.’ See also adventure

Definition of accident in US English:

accident

nounˈæksədəntˈaksədənt

1An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
he had an accident at the factory
if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness
as modifier an accident investigator
Example sentencesExamples
- You haven't been involved in any accidents or injuries at work?
- There were also a number of other accidents resulting lesser injuries or damage to gliders.
- Air accident investigators say the incident was ‘serious’ and are checking instructions from air traffic control.
- Air accident investigators have launched an investigation following the incident on Sunday morning.
- Co-ordinator of the scheme, Inspector Mick Melia, believes it has played a big role in cutting down accidents, injuries and fatalities.
- He said data from accidents and damage incidents is collected and used to tailor officer and staff training to improve safety and cut down costs.
- However the damages and injuries from the accidents so far this year surpassed those of last year.
- As noted earlier, the NTSB defines any event that led to human injury, death, or serious equipment damage as an accident.
- Most of these accidents and injuries are irreversible, and a company cannot hand out a sincere apology and have the victim know for certain that they mean it - so they express their remorse with a cheque.
- In the most favourable situation, there is only material damage, but often an accident causes physical injuries or even death.
- Except Lucio just had a bone removed from his hip and put into his wrist, to help him recover from a motorcycle accident injury, so it's down to me and Dave to cook.
- I have heard of injuries from similar accidents, but none as severe as this.
- Over a three-year period there has to have been four accidents involving deaths and serious injuries and eight accidents where victims have needed medical treatment.
- Currently, surgeons are forced to use grafts taken from other areas of a patient's body to replace skin damaged in burns and accidents, but this is difficult in patients who are badly injured.
- Each year, more than 37,000 women die from accidents.
- Doctors say he is making satisfactory progress after suffering extensive injuries in the accident five weeks ago today.
- Casualties who suffered less serious injuries in accidents also fell from 492 to 306 in Hampshire and from 96 to 80 in Southampton.
- Air accident investigators are probing the cause of the incident.
- Your liability coverage will protect you if you cause an accident that results in damage or injuries, up to the limits of your policy.
- Also, every year there are a number of serious accidents and injuries involving children who wander unauthorised onto constructions sites.
Synonyms
mishap, misfortune, misadventure, mischance, unfortunate incident, injury, disaster, tragedy, catastrophe, contretemps, calamity, blow, trouble, problem, difficulty
1. 1.1 A crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury.
  four people were killed in a car accident
  Example sentencesExamples
  Both Salford and Manchester city councils say there are currently unaware of any pending claims resulting from road accidents involving cars on tram lines.
  ‘All staff responding to road traffic accidents should thoroughly search vehicles,’ he said.
  And special squads of doctors are being set up to go out to the scene of road traffic accidents to look after crash victims.
  A stretch of the N7 east of Naas was the location for another two fatal accidents with 34 other accidents causing injury.
  A teenage driver was killed when his car collided head-on with a heavy goods vehicle in a horrific accident on a major road near York.
  These are some of the kind of vehicles contributing to the accidents on the roads.
  A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between skid resistance and road vehicle accidents.
  Within recent weeks there have been several minor car accidents on the country roads.
  I can guarantee that all the people who have been rescued from fires, or cut free from wrecked vehicles at road traffic accidents, know our true worth.
  Each year more than 200 people are rescued from vehicles involved in road accidents in North Yorkshire, a greater number than those rescued from fires.
  There has been a 20% rise in the numbers of people killed in road accidents involving police cars.
  In 1983, this 25-year-old woman was involved in a car accident on a Missouri road that left her in a vegetative state.
  Cameras are only ever installed for public safety reasons at sites which have a history of fatal accidents or serious injuries over the previous three years, along with documented evidence of speeding.
  But it has been proved that actually defective vehicles have contributed to accidents on Zambian roads.
  He suffered no injuries in the accident, and his lorry was left with only minor damage.
  A campaign has been launched to reduce the speed limit on a road following an accident where a car landed on its roof in a field.
  But in 1971 doctors had thought she would not live after being critically injured in a car accident in Thornton Road.
  In the last year I've witnessed four road accidents where only one vehicle was involved.
  Currently the only call-outs that Grassington does not cover are road traffic accidents and aircraft crashes because it does not have the specialist cutting equipment required.
  During his career, he has attended road accidents, air crashes, forest fires and blazing thatched cottages.
  Synonyms
  crash, collision, smash, bump, car crash, car accident, road accident, traffic accident, road traffic accident, rta, multiple crash, multiple collision
2. 1.2euphemistic Used euphemistically to refer to an incidence of incontinence, typically by a child or an animal.
2An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.
the pregnancy was an accident
it is no accident that my tale features a tragic romance
Example sentencesExamples
- Hegel explicitly denies - and it would in any case be quite out of keeping with his whole line of thought - that the direction of history is some kind of fortunate accident.
- As a result, they welcomed successful accidents and chance events.
- If life is very much a matter of chance - and of accident, then it follows that it is people not doctrines who count.
- It is an accident that my ancestors smuggled a lot of confiscated gold out of Nazi Germany when they negotiated safe passage from the Vatican.
- There are no accidents, only nature exercising her supremacy.
- Perhaps it is no accident that this event was held in a teaching institution.
- As soon as you examine the alternative you see what good fortune this accident of human demographics has bestowed on us.
- Perhaps it was no accident that the two events coincided, since the association between oysters and sex has been so hackneyed as to become an embarrassing cliché.
- Gogol came to have his name by accident, but that accident set in motion a series of events that would demarcate the history of a family.
- For too long we have regarded the extinction of Neanderthals as a chance historical accident.
- Thus, accidents or chance events function as sites around which narratives of individual difference can collocate.
- And contingency, accident, and chance have their role to play in the development of life's web.
- Through the fortunate accident of having a tedious instructor I had gained a year!
- Denis Beckett treks to the festival to reflect on the accidents, chances and coincidences that shape the world we know.
- Systematicity may exist in connectionist architectures, but where it exists, it is no more than a lucky accident.
- Yet the war did not really result from bad luck or accident; beneath a contingent process lay profound causes.
- Such a culture cannot accept that accidents - in nature just as in social life - are just that, unintended and coincidental.
- Was the wrong button on somebody's computer, which brought events to light, an accident or deliberate?
- Another chance for happy accidents that can change the course of history.
- He got hold of the property by the merest accident, and as soon as he did he began his work by attacking three unfortunate orphans on the estate.
- It's no accident that continental systems have more money and more resources: patients choose to spend their money on health because they can see that it is put to good to use.
Synonyms
chance, mere chance, coincidence, twist of fate, freak, hazard
1. 2.1 The working of fortune; chance.
  my faith is an accident of birth, not a matter of principled commitment
  he came to Harvard largely through accident
  Example sentencesExamples
  By accident he discovered a knack for ballet and after battling familial prejudice won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet school.
  By mere accident of birth I happen to be British.
  And so now by pure accident of birth, I'm alive at a time where science is about to figure this out.
  That's the real lesson I learned in East Timor: that as an accident of birth some of us have been handed fortunate lives.
  By accident of history and geography, the balance of seats in Parliament never accurately reflects the balance of votes cast.
  An accident of birth made me native to New York City where I grew but didn't flourish.
  For the other 90 per cent, it is viewed at best as quaint, but more often as a monstrous and grotesque accident of birth.
  All to make sure that the children get the opportunities they were denied by mere accident of birth.
  An accident of birth like ethnic origins, or an illness or disability or sexual preference, have been endowed with tremendous significance.
  Success is not a matter of chance, or an accident of birth.
  By accident of birth, most, but not all American leaders, were born in the United States.
  By accident, the modern supermax prison had been invented.
  The best ways to find a shoe tree are luck, accident, or word of mouth.
  By accident, though, Clancy came close to the ideal because he suppressed personal conceits and put his body on the line for the benefit of others.
  A child's accident of birth should not preclude a broad, critical, tolerant education.
  Some of the greatest discoveries in history resulted by chance or accident and many as an unexpected periphery to the original intent.
  By accident it was found to stimulate hair growth and a topical lotion was developed for men.
  Although Colin Byrne was hooked on golf from an early age his transformation into one of the world's leading caddies was more accident than destiny.
  Life formed through a fantastic combination of random chances and evolutionary accidents.
  By accident, by fate, by the meandering path that is parenthood, we become experts at things we thought we had no business knowing.
  Of course nepotism is a wonderful thing, and James is to be congratulated for making the most of this happy accident of birth.
  Synonyms
  fortuitously, accidentally, coincidentally, by chance, by coincidence, by a fluke, unintentionally, inadvertently
3Philosophy
(in Aristotelian thought) a property of a thing which is not essential to its nature.
Example sentencesExamples
- It does not tell me that I am a substance (that is, an independently existing object) as opposed to an accident or property.
- It took me a long time to see any form of rhetoric as more than trickery which played upon the accidents of language.
- Sounds do have certain mathematically expressible accidents, but the science of proportions does not establish the substance or nature of sounds.
- It is only when we call it ‘black’ that we introduce a new entity into the structure, an accident.
- The new element is existence, which Avicenna regarded as an accident, a property of things.
- Therefore, this crucial distinction between substance and accidents does not apply.
- The sensory qualities of such an object are therefore no more than passing accidents, through which its essence is dimly and confusedly perceived.

Phrases

an accident waiting to happen

1A potentially disastrous situation, typically caused by negligent or faulty procedures.
Example sentencesExamples
- He has been corresponding with North Vancouver District for 16 months attempting to get some sort of pedestrian control on the stretch of road which he thinks is an accident waiting to happen.
- ‘His death was, in my judgment, the result of an accident waiting to happen in circumstances where there was a clear and foreseeable risk of injury or worse,’ said Judge Paul Hoffman.
- IT MAY be slap bang in the middle of a shipping channel and regarded as an accident waiting to happen - but the city's controversial swing bridge is nearing completion.
- ‘It was an accident waiting to happen,’ he said.
- The situation is an accident waiting to happen and there are already frequent prangs and bumps around the junction.
- We are really angry because this is an accident waiting to happen and I'm sure that it will happen again.
- The road is a busy, sweeping bend and although you couldn't describe it as an accident blackspot, people are concerned that the state of the road at present is an accident waiting to happen.
- While the tragedy was an accident, it was an accident waiting to happen.
- This is an accident waiting to happen and if this dog does attack a child then I hope the judge can live with his decision.
- The exit from there is very limited so we've ended up with another traffic hazard which is an accident waiting to happen.
- The Ballitore Hill junction that leads from the busy N9 motor-way into the village of Ballitore, is according to one local resident, an accident waiting to happen.
- As I have said in recent weeks, this is an accident waiting to happen and the recent rain has made the ground slippy and dangerous for even the nimblest of people.
- With all the kids in the park it will be mayhem - an accident waiting to happen.
- You would think anyone would immediately recognize the situation as an accident waiting to happen.
- Mr Baker said: ‘This has been an ongoing problem for years and is an accident waiting to happen.’
- In an editorial, the paper said it was an accident waiting to happen and urged aviation authorities to re-examine their safety procedures.
- It's an accident waiting to happen, particularly with the amount of small children in this area,’ she added.
- The situation was an accident waiting to happen.
- But that stretch of road is awful, an accident waiting to happen.
- Ward councillor Tim Young said: ‘It is a death trap and an accident waiting to happen.’
1. 1.1informal A person certain to cause trouble.
  Example sentencesExamples
  You have been an accident waiting to happen and have placed many of your fellow citizens in grave danger.
  Idiots like this are an accident waiting to happen and, unfortunately, these accidents rarely affect just the drivers concerned.
  Johnson was an accident waiting to happen and the big central defender, Robert Huth, who suffered at right-back against Bayern Munich, switched to the left where he looked even more uncomfortable and uncertain.

accidents will happen

However careful you try to be, it is inevitable that some unfortunate or unforeseen events will occur.
problems like these should not occur, but accidents will happen
Example sentencesExamples
- Sometimes these things just happen as not even one method of contraception is 100% reliable, so accidents will happen, unfortunately!
- Yes, we regret the loss of four lives, but throughout the history of war, accidents will happen, innocents will be killed.
- To have exchanged phone numbers and words would have been expected and if, as a result, Cole had ended up playing for Chelsea - well, accidents will happen.
- When you are the world's policeman, accidents will happen.
- Although accidents will happen, only we, the road users, can reduce them.
- As per the Rule - 101 in the kid book, accidents will happen.
- ‘They have a structured training system but, at the end of the day, any training system run by human beings is subject to accidents, and accidents will happen,’ said Mr Brownson.

by accident

Unintentionally; by chance.
she didn't get where is today by accident
Example sentencesExamples
- The family were involved in a road-rage nightmare after wandering into Ilford by accident.
- The other issue Jon raises is knowing whether people were shot by accident or on purpose.
- Liverpool have stumbled into next season's Champions League almost by accident.
- That was the one I actually tried watching, but I kept missing episodes by accident.
- The orchestra first came to Marlborough last December by accident last year.
- She told the Citizen she became a goalkeeper more by accident than design.
- Of course, the chances of this happening by accident are literally a hundred million billion to one.
- But when Santa leaves him an extra present by accident Julian realises he will have to give it back.
- I might have pulled my front brake by accident, which is why I went over the front, but I don't know.
- He became a singer by accident after getting on stage to sing at a club.
- I got into recruitment by accident and stayed for 11 years before setting up Kite.
- He tries to put his hand on her knee but, afraid of seeming too forward, pretends he's done it by accident.
- The assailants were possibly in the building and the bodyguard came upon them by accident.
- It is clear that most are set off by accident: by the wind, by being badly installed, by nothing at all.
- They discovered this entirely by accident, when a fire devastated their home.
- Today I managed to fulfill one of my lifes ambitions, and almost by accident.
- Renee Geyer enjoys a career that's spanned three decades but it all began by accident.
- Quite by accident, Weir had stumbled on something so fulfilling that she devoted hours of her spare time to it.
- Detectives, who are still hunting the gunman, believe the shot may have been fired by accident.
- In truth, it was more by accident than design but it was a lucky chance which established his fame and fortune.

Origin

Late Middle English (in the general sense ‘an event’): via Old French from Latin accident- ‘happening’, from the verb accidere, from ad- ‘towards, to’ + cadere ‘to fall’.

单词	accident
释义	Definition of accident in English: accident noun ˈaksɪd(ə)ntˈæksədənt 1An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. he had an accident at the factory mass noun if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness Example sentencesExamples In the most favourable situation, there is only material damage, but often an accident causes physical injuries or even death. You haven't been involved in any accidents or injuries at work? I have heard of injuries from similar accidents, but none as severe as this. However the damages and injuries from the accidents so far this year surpassed those of last year. Air accident investigators have launched an investigation following the incident on Sunday morning. Also, every year there are a number of serious accidents and injuries involving children who wander unauthorised onto constructions sites. Doctors say he is making satisfactory progress after suffering extensive injuries in the accident five weeks ago today. Co-ordinator of the scheme, Inspector Mick Melia, believes it has played a big role in cutting down accidents, injuries and fatalities. Your liability coverage will protect you if you cause an accident that results in damage or injuries, up to the limits of your policy. Over a three-year period there has to have been four accidents involving deaths and serious injuries and eight accidents where victims have needed medical treatment. He said data from accidents and damage incidents is collected and used to tailor officer and staff training to improve safety and cut down costs. Each year, more than 37,000 women die from accidents. There were also a number of other accidents resulting lesser injuries or damage to gliders. Air accident investigators are probing the cause of the incident. Currently, surgeons are forced to use grafts taken from other areas of a patient's body to replace skin damaged in burns and accidents, but this is difficult in patients who are badly injured. Most of these accidents and injuries are irreversible, and a company cannot hand out a sincere apology and have the victim know for certain that they mean it - so they express their remorse with a cheque. As noted earlier, the NTSB defines any event that led to human injury, death, or serious equipment damage as an accident. Air accident investigators say the incident was ‘serious’ and are checking instructions from air traffic control. Except Lucio just had a bone removed from his hip and put into his wrist, to help him recover from a motorcycle accident injury, so it's down to me and Dave to cook. Casualties who suffered less serious injuries in accidents also fell from 492 to 306 in Hampshire and from 96 to 80 in Southampton. Synonyms mishap, misfortune, misadventure, mischance, unfortunate incident, injury, disaster, tragedy, catastrophe, contretemps, calamity, blow, trouble, problem, difficulty technical casualty 1.1 A crash involving road or other vehicles. four people were killed in a road accident Example sentencesExamples ‘All staff responding to road traffic accidents should thoroughly search vehicles,’ he said. Each year more than 200 people are rescued from vehicles involved in road accidents in North Yorkshire, a greater number than those rescued from fires. These are some of the kind of vehicles contributing to the accidents on the roads. Within recent weeks there have been several minor car accidents on the country roads. In the last year I've witnessed four road accidents where only one vehicle was involved. A teenage driver was killed when his car collided head-on with a heavy goods vehicle in a horrific accident on a major road near York. There has been a 20% rise in the numbers of people killed in road accidents involving police cars. Both Salford and Manchester city councils say there are currently unaware of any pending claims resulting from road accidents involving cars on tram lines. In 1983, this 25-year-old woman was involved in a car accident on a Missouri road that left her in a vegetative state. But in 1971 doctors had thought she would not live after being critically injured in a car accident in Thornton Road. Cameras are only ever installed for public safety reasons at sites which have a history of fatal accidents or serious injuries over the previous three years, along with documented evidence of speeding. I can guarantee that all the people who have been rescued from fires, or cut free from wrecked vehicles at road traffic accidents, know our true worth. During his career, he has attended road accidents, air crashes, forest fires and blazing thatched cottages. He suffered no injuries in the accident, and his lorry was left with only minor damage. A campaign has been launched to reduce the speed limit on a road following an accident where a car landed on its roof in a field. But it has been proved that actually defective vehicles have contributed to accidents on Zambian roads. And special squads of doctors are being set up to go out to the scene of road traffic accidents to look after crash victims. A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between skid resistance and road vehicle accidents. Currently the only call-outs that Grassington does not cover are road traffic accidents and aircraft crashes because it does not have the specialist cutting equipment required. A stretch of the N7 east of Naas was the location for another two fatal accidents with 34 other accidents causing injury. Synonyms crash, collision, smash, bump, car crash, car accident, road accident, traffic accident, road traffic accident, RTA, multiple crash, multiple collision rail accident, derailment air accident, air crash North American wreck informal smash-up, pile-up, shunt British informal prang 1.2euphemistic An incidence of incontinence by a child or animal. he had a little accident, but I washed his shorts out 2An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause. the pregnancy was an accident it is no accident that Manchester has produced more than its fair share of professional comics Example sentencesExamples As a result, they welcomed successful accidents and chance events. Thus, accidents or chance events function as sites around which narratives of individual difference can collocate. Yet the war did not really result from bad luck or accident; beneath a contingent process lay profound causes. As soon as you examine the alternative you see what good fortune this accident of human demographics has bestowed on us. Through the fortunate accident of having a tedious instructor I had gained a year! Perhaps it was no accident that the two events coincided, since the association between oysters and sex has been so hackneyed as to become an embarrassing cliché. He got hold of the property by the merest accident, and as soon as he did he began his work by attacking three unfortunate orphans on the estate. Hegel explicitly denies - and it would in any case be quite out of keeping with his whole line of thought - that the direction of history is some kind of fortunate accident. For too long we have regarded the extinction of Neanderthals as a chance historical accident. And contingency, accident, and chance have their role to play in the development of life's web. Another chance for happy accidents that can change the course of history. If life is very much a matter of chance - and of accident, then it follows that it is people not doctrines who count. Was the wrong button on somebody's computer, which brought events to light, an accident or deliberate? There are no accidents, only nature exercising her supremacy. Perhaps it is no accident that this event was held in a teaching institution. It is an accident that my ancestors smuggled a lot of confiscated gold out of Nazi Germany when they negotiated safe passage from the Vatican. Systematicity may exist in connectionist architectures, but where it exists, it is no more than a lucky accident. Gogol came to have his name by accident, but that accident set in motion a series of events that would demarcate the history of a family. Denis Beckett treks to the festival to reflect on the accidents, chances and coincidences that shape the world we know. Such a culture cannot accept that accidents - in nature just as in social life - are just that, unintended and coincidental. It's no accident that continental systems have more money and more resources: patients choose to spend their money on health because they can see that it is put to good to use. Synonyms chance, mere chance, coincidence, twist of fate, freak, hazard piece of good fortune, (bit of) luck, (bit of) good luck, fluke, happy chance serendipity, fate, fortuity, fortune, providence North American happenstance 2.1mass noun The working of fortune; chance. members belong to the House of Lords through hereditary right or accident of birth Example sentencesExamples By accident it was found to stimulate hair growth and a topical lotion was developed for men. Although Colin Byrne was hooked on golf from an early age his transformation into one of the world's leading caddies was more accident than destiny. By accident of history and geography, the balance of seats in Parliament never accurately reflects the balance of votes cast. By accident he discovered a knack for ballet and after battling familial prejudice won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet school. The best ways to find a shoe tree are luck, accident, or word of mouth. Some of the greatest discoveries in history resulted by chance or accident and many as an unexpected periphery to the original intent. An accident of birth like ethnic origins, or an illness or disability or sexual preference, have been endowed with tremendous significance. By mere accident of birth I happen to be British. All to make sure that the children get the opportunities they were denied by mere accident of birth. By accident of birth, most, but not all American leaders, were born in the United States. By accident, the modern supermax prison had been invented. That's the real lesson I learned in East Timor: that as an accident of birth some of us have been handed fortunate lives. For the other 90 per cent, it is viewed at best as quaint, but more often as a monstrous and grotesque accident of birth. And so now by pure accident of birth, I'm alive at a time where science is about to figure this out. A child's accident of birth should not preclude a broad, critical, tolerant education. By accident, though, Clancy came close to the ideal because he suppressed personal conceits and put his body on the line for the benefit of others. By accident, by fate, by the meandering path that is parenthood, we become experts at things we thought we had no business knowing. Life formed through a fantastic combination of random chances and evolutionary accidents. Of course nepotism is a wonderful thing, and James is to be congratulated for making the most of this happy accident of birth. An accident of birth made me native to New York City where I grew but didn't flourish. Success is not a matter of chance, or an accident of birth. Synonyms fortuitously, accidentally, coincidentally, by chance, by coincidence, by a fluke, unintentionally, inadvertently unwittingly, unknowingly, unawares, unconsciously by mistake, mistakenly 3Philosophy (in Aristotelian thought) a property of a thing which is not essential to its nature. Example sentencesExamples The sensory qualities of such an object are therefore no more than passing accidents, through which its essence is dimly and confusedly perceived. It does not tell me that I am a substance (that is, an independently existing object) as opposed to an accident or property. Therefore, this crucial distinction between substance and accidents does not apply. The new element is existence, which Avicenna regarded as an accident, a property of things. It took me a long time to see any form of rhetoric as more than trickery which played upon the accidents of language. Sounds do have certain mathematically expressible accidents, but the science of proportions does not establish the substance or nature of sounds. It is only when we call it ‘black’ that we introduce a new entity into the structure, an accident. Phrases accident and emergency A hospital department concerned with the provision of immediate treatment to people who are seriously injured in an accident or who are suddenly taken seriously ill. Example sentencesExamples He first visited the radiology department before moving on to accident and emergency and a cardiac ward. These issues should be addressed in a setting other than the busy, pressured atmosphere of accident and emergency or acute wards. I cannot thank the staff of accident and emergency enough for their care of me. Even in accident and emergency those GP consultation models could be useful. Essex Rivers NHS Trust is also struggling to hit tough target treatment times in accident and emergency. However, more patients required accident and emergency or out of hours care. The patient is believed to have visited the accident and emergency department of a local hospital after feeling unwell. Some years ago, I worked as a senior house officer in accident and emergency. A police station has been set up next to the waiting room in accident and emergency at the Royal Bolton Hospital. An ambulance was called, and here they were in accident and emergency. This, however, contradicts our anecdotal impression from accident and emergency and fracture clinics. A 42 year old man with diabetes presented to accident and emergency with intermittent vomiting for three days. The boy was treated in accident and emergency before being examined by a consultant paediatrician. The highest number of claims are in anaesthetics, accident and emergency and obstetrics and gynaecology. She was rushed to Broomfield Hospital's accident and emergency but died after her breathing problems got worse. The driver of another car involved in the accident was taken to accident and emergency at the hospital. When I was a senior house officer working in accident and emergency I was asked to take a telephone call from a patient wanting advice. The man who was taken to hospital was discharged after receiving treatment in the accident and emergency unit. They dried him off as best they could and took him to accident and emergency at the Medway Maritime hospital in Gillingham. It is not appropriate to go to accident and emergency as an alternative to your GP. an accident waiting to happen 1A potentially disastrous situation, typically caused by negligent or faulty procedures. Example sentencesExamples We are really angry because this is an accident waiting to happen and I'm sure that it will happen again. He has been corresponding with North Vancouver District for 16 months attempting to get some sort of pedestrian control on the stretch of road which he thinks is an accident waiting to happen. This is an accident waiting to happen and if this dog does attack a child then I hope the judge can live with his decision. ‘It was an accident waiting to happen,’ he said. The situation is an accident waiting to happen and there are already frequent prangs and bumps around the junction. With all the kids in the park it will be mayhem - an accident waiting to happen. IT MAY be slap bang in the middle of a shipping channel and regarded as an accident waiting to happen - but the city's controversial swing bridge is nearing completion. In an editorial, the paper said it was an accident waiting to happen and urged aviation authorities to re-examine their safety procedures. The situation was an accident waiting to happen. But that stretch of road is awful, an accident waiting to happen. The Ballitore Hill junction that leads from the busy N9 motor-way into the village of Ballitore, is according to one local resident, an accident waiting to happen. ‘His death was, in my judgment, the result of an accident waiting to happen in circumstances where there was a clear and foreseeable risk of injury or worse,’ said Judge Paul Hoffman. It's an accident waiting to happen, particularly with the amount of small children in this area,’ she added. While the tragedy was an accident, it was an accident waiting to happen. The road is a busy, sweeping bend and although you couldn't describe it as an accident blackspot, people are concerned that the state of the road at present is an accident waiting to happen. As I have said in recent weeks, this is an accident waiting to happen and the recent rain has made the ground slippy and dangerous for even the nimblest of people. You would think anyone would immediately recognize the situation as an accident waiting to happen. The exit from there is very limited so we've ended up with another traffic hazard which is an accident waiting to happen. Ward councillor Tim Young said: ‘It is a death trap and an accident waiting to happen.’ Mr Baker said: ‘This has been an ongoing problem for years and is an accident waiting to happen.’ 1.1informal A person certain to cause trouble. Example sentencesExamples Idiots like this are an accident waiting to happen and, unfortunately, these accidents rarely affect just the drivers concerned. Johnson was an accident waiting to happen and the big central defender, Robert Huth, who suffered at right-back against Bayern Munich, switched to the left where he looked even more uncomfortable and uncertain. You have been an accident waiting to happen and have placed many of your fellow citizens in grave danger. accidents will happen in the best regulated families proverb However careful you try to be, it is inevitable that some unfortunate or unforeseen events will occur. problems like these should not occur, but accidents will happen Example sentencesExamples When you are the world's policeman, accidents will happen. Although accidents will happen, only we, the road users, can reduce them. Sometimes these things just happen as not even one method of contraception is 100% reliable, so accidents will happen, unfortunately! Yes, we regret the loss of four lives, but throughout the history of war, accidents will happen, innocents will be killed. As per the Rule - 101 in the kid book, accidents will happen. ‘They have a structured training system but, at the end of the day, any training system run by human beings is subject to accidents, and accidents will happen,’ said Mr Brownson. To have exchanged phone numbers and words would have been expected and if, as a result, Cole had ended up playing for Chelsea - well, accidents will happen. by accident Unintentionally; by chance. she didn't get where she is today by accident nomadic hunters probably ended up on the new continent by accident Example sentencesExamples Renee Geyer enjoys a career that's spanned three decades but it all began by accident. Of course, the chances of this happening by accident are literally a hundred million billion to one. She told the Citizen she became a goalkeeper more by accident than design. The assailants were possibly in the building and the bodyguard came upon them by accident. They discovered this entirely by accident, when a fire devastated their home. Detectives, who are still hunting the gunman, believe the shot may have been fired by accident. The other issue Jon raises is knowing whether people were shot by accident or on purpose. Liverpool have stumbled into next season's Champions League almost by accident. That was the one I actually tried watching, but I kept missing episodes by accident. But when Santa leaves him an extra present by accident Julian realises he will have to give it back. Today I managed to fulfill one of my lifes ambitions, and almost by accident. I got into recruitment by accident and stayed for 11 years before setting up Kite. I might have pulled my front brake by accident, which is why I went over the front, but I don't know. He tries to put his hand on her knee but, afraid of seeming too forward, pretends he's done it by accident. He became a singer by accident after getting on stage to sing at a club. Quite by accident, Weir had stumbled on something so fulfilling that she devoted hours of her spare time to it. In truth, it was more by accident than design but it was a lucky chance which established his fame and fortune. The orchestra first came to Marlborough last December by accident last year. It is clear that most are set off by accident: by the wind, by being badly installed, by nothing at all. The family were involved in a road-rage nightmare after wandering into Ilford by accident. without accident Safely. he was able to stop the train without accident Example sentencesExamples I know that's not a good thing, but at least my hypnotized mind knew the way home and how to get there without accident, right? In December the air group was only able to fly on 17 days but managed 630 sorties without accident. The landing was hazardous, but we made it without accident. The rest of the day passed without accident or incident, Graham engaged on his final one-sheet list of tiny finishing jobs and me trying without much success to get my task-list under the same level of control. The greatest financial outlay required is on equipment, which may include small-scale crusher-destemmer, press, and an adequate supply of fermentation vessels, which allow the carbon dioxide to escape without accident. They managed their little boat well and without accident. En route they encountered 14 ditches, all cleared without accident. In answer to that, since 1967, I have driven about three million miles without accident, or insurance claim I might add. I waved it away quickly so that I could drive without accident. I passed on the little pots of paint, mainly because I was fearful that my fingers aren't up to the job of opening them without accident, and picked up a fibre-tip pen and my little watercolour box instead. In a 24-hour period, 1,398 flights delivered over 13,000 tons of coal without accident or injury. Origin Late Middle English (in the general sense 'an event'): via Old French from Latin accident- 'happening', from the verb accidere, from ad- 'towards, to' + cadere 'to fall'. An accident was originally ‘an event, something that happens’, not necessarily a mishap. It came into English via Old French, ultimately from Latin cadere, meaning ‘to fall’, which also gave us words such as cadaver (Late Middle English) ‘someone fallen’, chance, decay (Late Middle English) ‘fall away’, incident (Late Middle English) ‘fall upon’ so ‘happen’; and occasion (Late Middle English). The idea of an event ‘falling’ remains in the English word befall (Old English). Later the meaning of accident evolved into ‘something that happens by chance’, as in the phrase a happy accident. By the 17th century the modern meaning had become established in the language. The full form of the proverb accidents will happen, which dates from the early 19th century, is accidents will happen in the best-regulated families. According to Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1850): ‘Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by…the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they must be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.’ See also adventure noun.1 phr. Definition of accident in US English: accident nounˈæksədəntˈaksədənt 1An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. he had an accident at the factory if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness as modifier an accident investigator Example sentencesExamples You haven't been involved in any accidents or injuries at work? There were also a number of other accidents resulting lesser injuries or damage to gliders. Air accident investigators say the incident was ‘serious’ and are checking instructions from air traffic control. Air accident investigators have launched an investigation following the incident on Sunday morning. Co-ordinator of the scheme, Inspector Mick Melia, believes it has played a big role in cutting down accidents, injuries and fatalities. He said data from accidents and damage incidents is collected and used to tailor officer and staff training to improve safety and cut down costs. However the damages and injuries from the accidents so far this year surpassed those of last year. As noted earlier, the NTSB defines any event that led to human injury, death, or serious equipment damage as an accident. Most of these accidents and injuries are irreversible, and a company cannot hand out a sincere apology and have the victim know for certain that they mean it - so they express their remorse with a cheque. In the most favourable situation, there is only material damage, but often an accident causes physical injuries or even death. Except Lucio just had a bone removed from his hip and put into his wrist, to help him recover from a motorcycle accident injury, so it's down to me and Dave to cook. I have heard of injuries from similar accidents, but none as severe as this. Over a three-year period there has to have been four accidents involving deaths and serious injuries and eight accidents where victims have needed medical treatment. Currently, surgeons are forced to use grafts taken from other areas of a patient's body to replace skin damaged in burns and accidents, but this is difficult in patients who are badly injured. Each year, more than 37,000 women die from accidents. Doctors say he is making satisfactory progress after suffering extensive injuries in the accident five weeks ago today. Casualties who suffered less serious injuries in accidents also fell from 492 to 306 in Hampshire and from 96 to 80 in Southampton. Air accident investigators are probing the cause of the incident. Your liability coverage will protect you if you cause an accident that results in damage or injuries, up to the limits of your policy. Also, every year there are a number of serious accidents and injuries involving children who wander unauthorised onto constructions sites. Synonyms mishap, misfortune, misadventure, mischance, unfortunate incident, injury, disaster, tragedy, catastrophe, contretemps, calamity, blow, trouble, problem, difficulty 1.1 A crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury. four people were killed in a car accident Example sentencesExamples Both Salford and Manchester city councils say there are currently unaware of any pending claims resulting from road accidents involving cars on tram lines. ‘All staff responding to road traffic accidents should thoroughly search vehicles,’ he said. And special squads of doctors are being set up to go out to the scene of road traffic accidents to look after crash victims. A stretch of the N7 east of Naas was the location for another two fatal accidents with 34 other accidents causing injury. A teenage driver was killed when his car collided head-on with a heavy goods vehicle in a horrific accident on a major road near York. These are some of the kind of vehicles contributing to the accidents on the roads. A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between skid resistance and road vehicle accidents. Within recent weeks there have been several minor car accidents on the country roads. I can guarantee that all the people who have been rescued from fires, or cut free from wrecked vehicles at road traffic accidents, know our true worth. Each year more than 200 people are rescued from vehicles involved in road accidents in North Yorkshire, a greater number than those rescued from fires. There has been a 20% rise in the numbers of people killed in road accidents involving police cars. In 1983, this 25-year-old woman was involved in a car accident on a Missouri road that left her in a vegetative state. Cameras are only ever installed for public safety reasons at sites which have a history of fatal accidents or serious injuries over the previous three years, along with documented evidence of speeding. But it has been proved that actually defective vehicles have contributed to accidents on Zambian roads. He suffered no injuries in the accident, and his lorry was left with only minor damage. A campaign has been launched to reduce the speed limit on a road following an accident where a car landed on its roof in a field. But in 1971 doctors had thought she would not live after being critically injured in a car accident in Thornton Road. In the last year I've witnessed four road accidents where only one vehicle was involved. Currently the only call-outs that Grassington does not cover are road traffic accidents and aircraft crashes because it does not have the specialist cutting equipment required. During his career, he has attended road accidents, air crashes, forest fires and blazing thatched cottages. Synonyms crash, collision, smash, bump, car crash, car accident, road accident, traffic accident, road traffic accident, rta, multiple crash, multiple collision 1.2euphemistic Used euphemistically to refer to an incidence of incontinence, typically by a child or an animal. 2An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause. the pregnancy was an accident it is no accident that my tale features a tragic romance Example sentencesExamples Hegel explicitly denies - and it would in any case be quite out of keeping with his whole line of thought - that the direction of history is some kind of fortunate accident. As a result, they welcomed successful accidents and chance events. If life is very much a matter of chance - and of accident, then it follows that it is people not doctrines who count. It is an accident that my ancestors smuggled a lot of confiscated gold out of Nazi Germany when they negotiated safe passage from the Vatican. There are no accidents, only nature exercising her supremacy. Perhaps it is no accident that this event was held in a teaching institution. As soon as you examine the alternative you see what good fortune this accident of human demographics has bestowed on us. Perhaps it was no accident that the two events coincided, since the association between oysters and sex has been so hackneyed as to become an embarrassing cliché. Gogol came to have his name by accident, but that accident set in motion a series of events that would demarcate the history of a family. For too long we have regarded the extinction of Neanderthals as a chance historical accident. Thus, accidents or chance events function as sites around which narratives of individual difference can collocate. And contingency, accident, and chance have their role to play in the development of life's web. Through the fortunate accident of having a tedious instructor I had gained a year! Denis Beckett treks to the festival to reflect on the accidents, chances and coincidences that shape the world we know. Systematicity may exist in connectionist architectures, but where it exists, it is no more than a lucky accident. Yet the war did not really result from bad luck or accident; beneath a contingent process lay profound causes. Such a culture cannot accept that accidents - in nature just as in social life - are just that, unintended and coincidental. Was the wrong button on somebody's computer, which brought events to light, an accident or deliberate? Another chance for happy accidents that can change the course of history. He got hold of the property by the merest accident, and as soon as he did he began his work by attacking three unfortunate orphans on the estate. It's no accident that continental systems have more money and more resources: patients choose to spend their money on health because they can see that it is put to good to use. Synonyms chance, mere chance, coincidence, twist of fate, freak, hazard 2.1 The working of fortune; chance. my faith is an accident of birth, not a matter of principled commitment he came to Harvard largely through accident Example sentencesExamples By accident he discovered a knack for ballet and after battling familial prejudice won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet school. By mere accident of birth I happen to be British. And so now by pure accident of birth, I'm alive at a time where science is about to figure this out. That's the real lesson I learned in East Timor: that as an accident of birth some of us have been handed fortunate lives. By accident of history and geography, the balance of seats in Parliament never accurately reflects the balance of votes cast. An accident of birth made me native to New York City where I grew but didn't flourish. For the other 90 per cent, it is viewed at best as quaint, but more often as a monstrous and grotesque accident of birth. All to make sure that the children get the opportunities they were denied by mere accident of birth. An accident of birth like ethnic origins, or an illness or disability or sexual preference, have been endowed with tremendous significance. Success is not a matter of chance, or an accident of birth. By accident of birth, most, but not all American leaders, were born in the United States. By accident, the modern supermax prison had been invented. The best ways to find a shoe tree are luck, accident, or word of mouth. By accident, though, Clancy came close to the ideal because he suppressed personal conceits and put his body on the line for the benefit of others. A child's accident of birth should not preclude a broad, critical, tolerant education. Some of the greatest discoveries in history resulted by chance or accident and many as an unexpected periphery to the original intent. By accident it was found to stimulate hair growth and a topical lotion was developed for men. Although Colin Byrne was hooked on golf from an early age his transformation into one of the world's leading caddies was more accident than destiny. Life formed through a fantastic combination of random chances and evolutionary accidents. By accident, by fate, by the meandering path that is parenthood, we become experts at things we thought we had no business knowing. Of course nepotism is a wonderful thing, and James is to be congratulated for making the most of this happy accident of birth. Synonyms fortuitously, accidentally, coincidentally, by chance, by coincidence, by a fluke, unintentionally, inadvertently 3Philosophy (in Aristotelian thought) a property of a thing which is not essential to its nature. Example sentencesExamples It does not tell me that I am a substance (that is, an independently existing object) as opposed to an accident or property. It took me a long time to see any form of rhetoric as more than trickery which played upon the accidents of language. Sounds do have certain mathematically expressible accidents, but the science of proportions does not establish the substance or nature of sounds. It is only when we call it ‘black’ that we introduce a new entity into the structure, an accident. The new element is existence, which Avicenna regarded as an accident, a property of things. Therefore, this crucial distinction between substance and accidents does not apply. The sensory qualities of such an object are therefore no more than passing accidents, through which its essence is dimly and confusedly perceived. Phrases an accident waiting to happen 1A potentially disastrous situation, typically caused by negligent or faulty procedures. Example sentencesExamples He has been corresponding with North Vancouver District for 16 months attempting to get some sort of pedestrian control on the stretch of road which he thinks is an accident waiting to happen. ‘His death was, in my judgment, the result of an accident waiting to happen in circumstances where there was a clear and foreseeable risk of injury or worse,’ said Judge Paul Hoffman. IT MAY be slap bang in the middle of a shipping channel and regarded as an accident waiting to happen - but the city's controversial swing bridge is nearing completion. ‘It was an accident waiting to happen,’ he said. The situation is an accident waiting to happen and there are already frequent prangs and bumps around the junction. We are really angry because this is an accident waiting to happen and I'm sure that it will happen again. The road is a busy, sweeping bend and although you couldn't describe it as an accident blackspot, people are concerned that the state of the road at present is an accident waiting to happen. While the tragedy was an accident, it was an accident waiting to happen. This is an accident waiting to happen and if this dog does attack a child then I hope the judge can live with his decision. The exit from there is very limited so we've ended up with another traffic hazard which is an accident waiting to happen. The Ballitore Hill junction that leads from the busy N9 motor-way into the village of Ballitore, is according to one local resident, an accident waiting to happen. As I have said in recent weeks, this is an accident waiting to happen and the recent rain has made the ground slippy and dangerous for even the nimblest of people. With all the kids in the park it will be mayhem - an accident waiting to happen. You would think anyone would immediately recognize the situation as an accident waiting to happen. Mr Baker said: ‘This has been an ongoing problem for years and is an accident waiting to happen.’ In an editorial, the paper said it was an accident waiting to happen and urged aviation authorities to re-examine their safety procedures. It's an accident waiting to happen, particularly with the amount of small children in this area,’ she added. The situation was an accident waiting to happen. But that stretch of road is awful, an accident waiting to happen. Ward councillor Tim Young said: ‘It is a death trap and an accident waiting to happen.’ 1.1informal A person certain to cause trouble. Example sentencesExamples You have been an accident waiting to happen and have placed many of your fellow citizens in grave danger. Idiots like this are an accident waiting to happen and, unfortunately, these accidents rarely affect just the drivers concerned. Johnson was an accident waiting to happen and the big central defender, Robert Huth, who suffered at right-back against Bayern Munich, switched to the left where he looked even more uncomfortable and uncertain. accidents will happen However careful you try to be, it is inevitable that some unfortunate or unforeseen events will occur. problems like these should not occur, but accidents will happen Example sentencesExamples Sometimes these things just happen as not even one method of contraception is 100% reliable, so accidents will happen, unfortunately! Yes, we regret the loss of four lives, but throughout the history of war, accidents will happen, innocents will be killed. To have exchanged phone numbers and words would have been expected and if, as a result, Cole had ended up playing for Chelsea - well, accidents will happen. When you are the world's policeman, accidents will happen. Although accidents will happen, only we, the road users, can reduce them. As per the Rule - 101 in the kid book, accidents will happen. ‘They have a structured training system but, at the end of the day, any training system run by human beings is subject to accidents, and accidents will happen,’ said Mr Brownson. by accident Unintentionally; by chance. she didn't get where is today by accident Example sentencesExamples The family were involved in a road-rage nightmare after wandering into Ilford by accident. The other issue Jon raises is knowing whether people were shot by accident or on purpose. Liverpool have stumbled into next season's Champions League almost by accident. That was the one I actually tried watching, but I kept missing episodes by accident. The orchestra first came to Marlborough last December by accident last year. She told the Citizen she became a goalkeeper more by accident than design. Of course, the chances of this happening by accident are literally a hundred million billion to one. But when Santa leaves him an extra present by accident Julian realises he will have to give it back. I might have pulled my front brake by accident, which is why I went over the front, but I don't know. He became a singer by accident after getting on stage to sing at a club. I got into recruitment by accident and stayed for 11 years before setting up Kite. He tries to put his hand on her knee but, afraid of seeming too forward, pretends he's done it by accident. The assailants were possibly in the building and the bodyguard came upon them by accident. It is clear that most are set off by accident: by the wind, by being badly installed, by nothing at all. They discovered this entirely by accident, when a fire devastated their home. Today I managed to fulfill one of my lifes ambitions, and almost by accident. Renee Geyer enjoys a career that's spanned three decades but it all began by accident. Quite by accident, Weir had stumbled on something so fulfilling that she devoted hours of her spare time to it. Detectives, who are still hunting the gunman, believe the shot may have been fired by accident. In truth, it was more by accident than design but it was a lucky chance which established his fame and fortune. Origin Late Middle English (in the general sense ‘an event’): via Old French from Latin accident- ‘happening’, from the verb accidere, from ad- ‘towards, to’ + cadere ‘to fall’. noun.1 phr.
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