casual

comparative more casual · superlative most casual · alternative casuall · alternative cazh

1. Happening by chance.

   They only had casual meetings.

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   casual breaks, in the general system

   1819 June 23 – 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “(please specify the title)”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: accidental, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, random, accidental, accidentary, adventitious · Antonyms: inevitable, necessary

2. Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.

   The purchase of donuts was just a casual expense.

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   a constant habit, rather than a casual gesture

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 9, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   Synonyms: ad hoc

3. Employed irregularly.

   He was just a casual worker.

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   This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

4. Careless.

   I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee.

   2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus, page 117

   Synonyms: easygoing, unconcerned, airy, at ease, at peace, carefree, careless, chill

5. Happening or coming to pass without design.

   Hogan assumed the entire creek bed was to be played as a casual hazard, moved his ball out and assessed himself a one-stroke penalty.

   2012, Jeff Miller, Grown at Glen Garden: Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and the Little Texas Golf Course that Propelled Them to Stardom

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   It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: unexpected, unplanned, ad lib, extemporal, extemporary, extemporaneous, extempore, extemporized · Antonyms: expected, scheduled

6. usage; or milieu; usage; or milieuInformal; relaxed.

   tone in casual interactions

   Synonyms: colloquial · Antonyms: strict, formal, official

7. Designed for informal or everyday use.

   pants in the casual wear collection

   Synonyms: cas, informal · Antonyms: ceremonial, formal, regulation

plural casuals · alternative casuall · alternative cazh

1. AustraliaNew ZealandUKA worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
2. A worker who is doing a particular type of job temporarily, not as a lifetime career.

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   Of the scavagers proper there are, as in all classes of unskilled labour, that is to say, of labour which requires no previous apprenticeship, and to which any one can “turn his hand” on an emergency, two distinct orders of workmen, “the regulars and casuals” to adopt the trade terms; that is to say, the labourers consist of those who have been many years at the trade, constantly employed at it, and those who have but recently taken to it as a means of obtaining a subsistence after their ordinary resources have failed.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

3. A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
4. UKhistoricalA member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).

   At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear.

   2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: dresser, Perry boy

5. UKhistoricalOne who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he or she does not belong; a vagrant in the casual ward.

   During the great prevalence of vagrancy, the cost of the sick was far greater than the expense of relief. In the quarter ending June 1848, no less than 322 casuals were under medical treatment, either in the workhouse of the Wandsworth and Clapham union or at the London Fever Hospital.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

6. derogatoryinformalvideo gamesA player of casual games.

   The devs dumbed the game down so the casuals could enjoy it.

7. slanglifestyleA person whose engagement with media is relaxed or superficial.

   Casuals outnumbered regulars in the art-house audience two to one.

   1972, Lee C. Garrison, "The Needs of Motion Picture Audiences", California Management Review, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 1972, page 149

   2 more examples

   Most often, when a series is marketed toward casuals, the loyals feel that their interests and needs are not being met.

   2010, Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, page 16

   Treating a gay relationship as a puzzle that must be pursued by the clever viewers and hidden from “casuals” until a narrative reveal at the eleventh hour seems antithetical to the idea of normalized representation that TJLCers claim as the main reason they want Johnlock to be canon, […]

   2018, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta in the Room: Sherlock and the Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, page 91

8. UKdatedA tramp.

   I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character.

   1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14

9. in pluralShoes suitable for everyday use, as opposed to more formal footwear.

   He and I were wearing casuals[…]

   1984, William Golding, The Paper Men, page 71

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   Next spring you’ll see more women than ever wearing “casuals” and “flats,” the shoes with the wedge heels or no heels at all.

   1948 December, “Shoes: Competition Is Back”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 47, column 2

   In girls wearing casuals, ugly hypertrophied skin over the heels was frequently noted, probably due to the loose shoe moving as they walked.

   1959, The Medical Officer, page 158

   Like his friends, he is wearing casuals, ideal for lounging around crypts.

   1967, Kenneth Tynan, Tynan Right & Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 65