— hazardable , adj. — hazarder , n. — hazardless , adj.
/haz"euhrd/ , n.
1. an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable: The job was full of hazards.
2. something causing unavoidable danger, peril, risk, or difficulty: the many hazards of the big city.
3. the absence or lack of predictability; chance; uncertainty: There is an element of hazard in the execution of the most painstaking plans.
4. Golf. a bunker, sand trap, or the like, constituting an obstacle.
5. the uncertainty of the result in throwing a die.
6. a game played with two dice, an earlier and more complicated form of craps.
7. Court Tennis. any of the winning openings.
8. (in English billiards) a stroke by which the player pockets the object ball (winning hazard) or his or her own ball after contact with another ball (losing hazard) .
9. at hazard , at risk; at stake; subject to chance: His reputation was at hazard in his new ventures.
v.t.
10. to offer (a statement, conjecture, etc.) with the possibility of facing criticism, disapproval, failure, or the like; venture: He hazarded a guess, with trepidation, as to her motives in writing the article.
11. to put to the risk of being lost; expose to risk: In making the investment, he hazarded all his savings.
12. to take or run the risk of (a misfortune, penalty, etc.): Thieves hazard arrest.
13. to venture upon (anything of doubtful issue): to hazard a dangerous encounter.
[ 1250-1300; ME hasard al-zahr the die ]
Syn. 1. See danger. 3. accident, fortuity, fortuitousness. 11. stake, endanger, peril, imperil.
Ant. 1. safety.