hazard

What it means

1. countablehistoricaluncountableA game of chance played with dice, usually for monetary stakes, popular mainly from 14th c. to 19th c.First known use 14th c.

   [T]here's Harry diets himself—for gaming and is now under a hazard Regimen.

   1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.iii

   3 more examples

   All the young men go to Spratt’s after their balls. It is de rigueur, my dear; and they play billiards as they used to play macao and hazard in Mr. Fox’s time.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 40, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   Hazard at the clubs and in fashionable society was conducted with all decorum. It was unfashionable and unpardonable to show any display of feeling at losses or gains.

   1901, William Biggs Boulton, The Amusements of Old London, volume I, London: John C. Nimmo, page 139

   She realized then that, of course, no one was playing hazard. Dice games were technically illegal, and certainly improper.

   2002, Jo Beverley, Hazard, →ISBN

2. countableuncountableChance; accident, unpredictability.First known use 16th c.

   I will stand the hazard of the die.

   c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 5, scene 4

   1 more example

   I see animated movies are now managing, by hazard or design, to reflect our contemporary reality more accurately than live-action movies.

   2006 May 20, John Patterson, The Guardian

   Synonyms: fortune

3. uncountableThe risk of some loss or harm; danger, peril, the chance of an adverse outcome.First known use 16th c.

   He encountered the enemy at the hazard of his reputation and life.

   3 more examples

   Men are led on from one stage of life to another in a condition of the utmost hazard.

   a. 1729, John Rogers, The Difficulties of Obtaining Salvation

   Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up and all is on the hazard.

   1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

   He […] concluded by saying, he should never forgive his brother for having put the place which he bore in that friendship to a hazard.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

   Synonyms: adventure

In a sentence

[T]here's Harry diets himself—for gaming and is now under a hazard Regimen.

1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.iii

Where it comes from

1. Arabicاَلزَّهْر“the dice”
2. Old Frenchhasart“a game of dice”
3. Middle Englishhasard
4. Englishhazard

From Middle English hasard, from Old French hasart (“a game of dice”) (noun), hasarder (verb), from Arabic اَلزَّهْر (az-zahr, “the dice”). Compare Spanish azar, Portuguese azar.

First known use: 14th c.