hazard

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.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhæ.zɚd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhaz.əd/

hazard (countable and uncountable, plural hazards)

1. The chance of suffering harm; danger, peril, risk of loss. [from 16th c.]

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

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

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

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar:

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

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

     He then launched forth into a panegyric on Allworthy's goodness; into the highest encomiums on his friendship; and concluded by saying, he should never forgive his brother for having put the place which he bore in that friendship to a hazard.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     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:  […] .

   • 2009 December 27, Barbara Ellen, The Guardian:

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

2. An obstacle or other feature which causes risk or danger; originally in sports, and now applied more generally. [from 19th c.]

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

3. (in driving a vehicle) An obstacle or other feature that presents a risk or danger that justifies the driver in taking action to avoid it.
   • 2014, Neville Stanton et al., Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation: Part III, →ISBN:

     Risk behavior in driving consists in hazard detection, threat appraisal, action selection and implementation. Hazard perception tests often include the task to react quickly to hazards within traffic scenarios.

4. (golf) A sand or water obstacle on a golf course.
5. (billiards) The act of potting a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).
6. (historical) A game of chance played with dice, usually for monetary stakes; popular mainly from 14th c. to 19th c.
   • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.iii:

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

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

     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.

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

     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.

   • 2002, Jo Beverley, Hazard, →ISBN:

     Anne found the gaming room where mostly older people were seated at card tables. She realized then that, of course, no one was playing hazard. Dice games were technically illegal, and certainly improper. Gambling was illegal, but no one paid attention to that. Most people were playing whist for penny points.

7. Chance. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 5, scene 4:

     I will stand the hazard of the die.

   • 2006 May 20, John Patterson, The Guardian:

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

8. (obsolete) Anything that is hazarded or risked, such as a stake in gambling.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice:

     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.

9. (tennis) The side of the court into which the ball is served.
10. (programming) A problem with the instruction pipeline in CPU microarchitectures when the next instruction cannot execute in the following clock cycle, potentially leading to incorrect results.

• (chance): fortune, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck
• (chance of suffering harm): adventure
• (anything hazarded or risked): bet, pledge, skin in the game, wager

hazard (third-person singular simple present hazards, present participle hazarding, simple past and past participle hazarded)

1. To expose to chance; to take a risk.
   • a. 1676, John Clarke, Excuses of the Irreligious:

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

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

     He hazards his neck to the halter.

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

   I'll hazard a guess.

   • 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]:

     I hazarded the loss of whom I loved.

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

     They hazard to cut their feet.

• hazard a guess

• “hazard”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Borrowed from German Hasard, from Old French hasart.[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦazart]

hazard m inan

1. gambling
2. risk, gamble

hazard m (plural hazards)

1. Archaic spelling of hasard, chiefly used before 1800

hazard m (invariable)

1. hazard lights (on a vehicle)

hazard m (plural hazards)

1. hazard; obstacle

• French: hasard

Borrowed from French hasard, from Old French hasart, from Arabic اَلزَّهْر (az-zahr, “the dice”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.zart/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -azart
• Syllabification: ha‧zard

hazard m inan

1. (singular only) gambling
2. (electronics) race condition

• hazard in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• hazard in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French hasard.

hazard n (plural hazarduri)

1. hazard

• IPA^(key): /xǎzard/
• Hyphenation: ha‧zard

hàzard m (Cyrillic spelling ха̀зард)

1. gamble, gambling
2. risk, hazard