ca·su·al·ty
(k
zh
-
l-t
)
KEY
NOUN:
pl.
ca·su·al·ties
- An accident, especially one involving serious injury or loss of life.
- One injured or killed in an accident:
a train wreck with many casualties.
- One injured, killed, captured, or missing in action through engagement with an enemy. Often used in the plural:
Battlefield casualties were high.
- One that is harmed or eliminated as a result of an action or a circumstance:
The corner grocery was a casualty of the expanding supermarkets.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English
casuelte, from Old French, from Medieval Latin
c
sulits,
chance, accident, from Latin
csulis,
fortuitous ; see
casual
