hazard

plural hazards

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

4. countableA situation involving such a risk of harm or loss; (later also) a person or object which poses such a risk, something seen as a source of danger or difficulty.First known use 16th c.

   The video game involves guiding a character on a skateboard past all kinds of hazards.

   3 more examples

   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: […].

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion

   Quite apart from the gruesome road hazards, snow is awful even when you don't have to travel.

   2009 December 27, Barbara Ellen, The Guardian

   Hazard perception tests often include the task to react quickly to hazards within traffic scenarios.

   2014, Neville Stanton et al., Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation: Part III, →ISBN

5. countableuncountablereal tennisEach of the various openings or galleries around the side of a court.First known use 16th c.
6. countableobsoleteuncountableAnything that is hazarded or risked, such as a stake in gambling.First known use 16th–17th c.

   But if you please To shoot another arrow that self way Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt, As I will watch the aim, or to find both Or bring your latter hazard back again And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

   c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

   Synonyms: bet, pledge, skin in the game, wager

7. countableuncountableball gamesA stroke which results in potting a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).First known use 17th c.
8. countableuncountablegolfSomething which prevents free striking of the ball, such as a sand or water obstacle.First known use 18th c.
9. IrelandcountablehistoricaluncountableA cabstand, especially in Dublin.First known use 19th c.

   Mr Bloom went round the corner and passed the drooping nags of the hazard.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 5: Lotus Eaters]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 73

10. countableuncountablecomputingA problem with the instruction pipeline in CPU microarchitectures when the next instruction cannot execute in the following clock cycle, potentially leading to incorrect results.First known use 20th c.

present singular third person hazards · participle present hazarding · participle past hazarded · past hazarded

1. To expose to chance; to take a risk.

   He hazards his neck to the halter.

   1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   to be consistent, you ought to be a Chriſtian in temper and practice; for you hazard nothing by a course of evangelical obedience

   a. 1676, John Clarke, Excuses of the Irreligious

2. To risk (something); to venture, incur, or bring on.

   I'll hazard a guess.

   2 more examples

   I hazarded the loss of whom I loved.

   c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   They hazard to cut their feet.

   1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Lord Chesterfield and Lord Chatham”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume II, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC

plural Hazards

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA home rule city, the county seat of Perry County, Kentucky, United States.