adventure
/ədˈvɛntʃə
/noun
1An unusual and exciting or daring experience: her recent adventures in Italy...
- Does the idea of touring conjure up exciting images of places to see and new foods and adventures to experience in foreign lands?
- For some children starting kindergarten is an exciting adventure, for others the experience borders on the terrifying.
- It is also an exciting adventure and a story of a quest that must be fulfilled.
Synonyms
exploit, escapade, deed, feat, trial, experience, incident, occurrence, event, happening, episode, affair;
stunt, caper, romp, antic;
quest, crusade, campaign, venture
1.1 [mass noun] Excitement associated with danger or the taking of risks: she travelled the world in search of adventure...
- Men crave adventure, risk, danger and heroic sacrifice.
- The danger, excitement and adventure of racing yachts on the high seas awaits a North Yorkshire woman, picked to take part in one of the world's toughest yacht races.
- I am armed with a sense of adventure, and excited for what awaits.
Synonyms
excitement, exciting experience, thrill, stimulation;
risk, riskiness, danger, dangerousness, hazard, hazardousness, peril, perilousness, uncertainty, precariousness
informal a kick, a buzz
North American informal a charge
1.2A reckless or potentially hazardous action or enterprise: in any military adventure, the first casualty is truth
1.3 archaic A commercial venture: I sold my East India adventure of £250 principal for £750...
- The only downside to my commercial adventure is the mischief being done to the American dollar.
- The first recorded case of an Indian being christened here was bound up with British commercial adventures in South Asia.
- At this stage in history, the merchant class, desperate for money to finance their adventures, struggled with the monopoly of the moneylenders and overcame it.
verb [no object] dated
1Engage in daring or risky activity: they had adventured into the forest...
- For the time being, bushwacking will still be permitted, as will adventuring on unofficial boot trails, but protecting low-use zones will be a high priority.
- To prevent further adventuring, these emperors made it a capital offense to build a boat with more than two masts.
- The European seaman is prudent when adventuring out to sea.
1.1 [with object] Put (one’s money or life) at risk: he adventured £300 in the purchase of land...
- Before they killed him he said, ‘I have adventured my life in endeavouring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and I am a willing sacrifice in their cause.’
- The document contains lists of the men and women who adventured money to the Virginia Company.
- The adventurers were so called because they lent or adventured money to parliament.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French aventure (noun), aventurer (verb), based on Latin adventurus 'about to happen', from advenire 'arrive'.
The meaning of adventure has changed over the centuries. In the Middle Ages it meant ‘anything that happens by chance’ or ‘chance, fortune, or luck’, and came from Latin advenire ‘to arrive’. Gradually the idea of ‘risk or danger’ became a stronger element and later evolved into ‘a dangerous or hazardous undertaking’, and still later into ‘an exciting incident that happens to someone’. Compare accident. Related words are advent (Old English) ‘coming, arrival’ and adventitious (early 17th century) originally describing something happening by chance. See also revenue
Rhymes
- reaction centre
- reaction chamber
- reaction coil
- reaction drive
- reaction engine
- reaction force
- reaction formation
- reaction index
- reactionism
- reactionist
- reaction jet
- reaction machine
- reaction mechanism
- reaction mixture
- reaction motor
- reaction pattern
- reaction process
- reaction propulsion
- reaction rim
- reaction shot
- reaction time
- reaction turbine
- reaction type
- reaction vessel
- reaction waterwheel