Hazard
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈhazəd/
Origin
From Old French hasart ("a game of dice") (noun), hasarder (verb), probably from Arabic الزّهر (az-zahr, "the dice"). Compare Spanish, Portuguese azar.
Full definition of hazard
Noun
hazard
(plural hazards)- (historical) A type of game played with dice. from 14th c.
- Chance. from 16th c.
- circa 1597 William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 5, scene 4:I will stand the hazard of the die.
- 2006 May 20, John Patterson, The Guardian:I see animated movies are now managing, by hazard or design, to reflect our contemporary reality more accurately than live-action movies.
- The chance of suffering harm; danger, peril, risk of loss. from 16th c.He encountered the enemy at the hazard of his reputation and life.
- unknown date Rogers:Men are led on from one stage of life to another in a condition of the utmost hazard.
- 1599, Wm. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar:Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up and all is on the hazard.
- 2006, w, Internal Combustion Chapter 1, If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: ....
- 2009 December 27, Barbara Ellen, The Guardian:Quite apart from the gruesome road hazards, snow is awful even when you don't have to travel.
- An obstacle or other feature which causes risk or danger; originally in sports, and now applied more generally. from 19th c.The video game involves guiding a character on a skateboard past all kinds of hazards.
- (golf) sand or water obstacle on a golf course
- (billiards) The act of potting a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).
- Anything that is hazarded or risked, such as a stake in gambling.
- unknown date Shakespeare:your latter hazard
Derived terms
Verb
- To expose to chance; to take a risk.I'll hazard a guess.
- unknown date John ClarkeMen hazard nothing by a course of evangelical obedience.
- unknown date FullerHe hazards his neck to the halter.
- To risk (something); to venture to incur, or bring on.
- unknown date ShakespeareI hazarded the loss of whom I loved.
- unknown date LandorThey hazard to cut their feet.