casualty

plural casualties · alternative obsolete casuality

1. countableuncountableSomething that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.

   1756, Samuel Johnson, “The Life of Sir Thomas Browne” in Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, p. xx, The course of his education was like that of others, such as put him little in the way of extraordinary casualties.

   Synonyms: fortune

2. countableuncountableA person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.
3. countableproscribeduncountableSpecifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.
4. countableuncountablegovernmentA person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).
5. UKabbreviationclippingcountableuncountableClipping of casualty department: the accident and emergency department of a hospital providing immediate treatment.

   Synonyms: A&E, accident and emergency, emergency department, emergency room, emergency, emergency room, emergency department, emergency ward

6. countableuncountableAn incidental charge or payment.
7. countableuncountableSomeone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.

   Among recent casualties is the S.B.B.'s branch from Nyon to Divonne-les-Bains, just across the French frontier, closed to all traffic at the commencement of the winter service.

   1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: Switzerland: Federal aid for three minor lines”, in Modern Railways, page 418

   1 more example

   Today, the pocket calculator is a dying product, a casualty of digitization, which has been relegated to the role of a graphic icon on phone and computer screens rather than an object in its own right, but back in the early 1970s, it was at the forefront of consumer technology.

   2012 March 4, Alice Rawsthorn, “Farewell, Pocket Calculator?”, in The New York Times

8. countableobsoleteuncountableChance nature; randomness.

   The non-necessary [causes] follow; of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude […]

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 327