▪ I. hazard, n. (a.)
(ˈhæzəd)
Forms: 4–6 hasard, 5–6 -arde, 6 hazarde, (hassard(e, hazered, Sc. hasart), 6–7 hazzard, 5– hazard.
[a. OF. hasard, -art (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.): cf. Pr., Sp., Pg. azar, It. la zara, azzardo (from Fr.), med.L. azardum, azarum (Du Cange).
The origin of the French word is uncertain, but its source was prob. Arabic. According to William of Tyre, the game took its name from a castle called Hasart or Asart in Palestine, during the siege of which it was invented: see Littré s.v. The true Arab name of this castle appears to have been ‘Ain Zarba (Prof. Margoliouth). Mahn proposes vulgar Arab. az-zahr or az-zār ‘die’ (Bocthor); but early evidence for this sense is wanting.]
1. A game at dice in which the chances are complicated by a number of arbitrary rules.
| c 1300 Havelok 2326 Leyk of mine, of hasard ok, Romanz reding of þe bok. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 152 Þei fallen to nyse pleies, at tables, chees & hasard. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 228/2 Hasarde, play, aleatura. 1530 Palsgr. 229/2 Hasarde a dyce playe, hasart, azart. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. vii. 93 Who will goe to Hazard with me for twentie Prisoners? 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 340 They can play at chesse, irish, passage, in and in, hazard. 1778 C. Jones Hoyle's Games Impr. 209 The Game of Hazard..may be played by any Number of Persons. He who takes the Box and Dice throws a Main, that is to say, a Chance for the Company, which must be above four, and not exceed nine [etc.]. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. iv. 52 The principal game played was hazard, of which there were two kinds: French hazard, in which the players staked against the bank, and English, or chicken hazard, in which they played against each other. |
2. Chance, venture; a chance.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 71, I viewd with wundring a grisly monsterus hazard. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. iv. 10 Slaue, I haue set my life vpon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the Dye. 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars ii. (R.), These mighty actors..on the hazard of a bad exchange, Have ventur'd all the stock of life beside. 1641 Hinde J. Bruen xxxix. 121 All games depending upon hazzard or chance are to be eschewed. 1697 Conf. at Lambeth in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 44 They very unfairly threw out the Bill without so much as giving it a hazard. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. ii, On what hazards turns our fate! |
3. Risk of loss or harm; peril, jeopardy.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 219 In so many hasardes and ieoperdies of his life. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 164 To inlarge your dominion: yea, and that without hassard and detriment. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 46 By preservation of himselfe from Hazards of Travell. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 33 Love..in case of distance and long absence would be in hazard to languish. 1701 Pepys Corr. 4 Dec., I should not fear the hazard of sending him abroad. 1752 Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 284 Profits proportionable to their expence and hazard. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 723 A service of some hazard was to be rendered to the good cause. |
† 4. That which is risked or staked. Obs. rare.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. i. 151, I do not doubt..Or to finde both, Or bring your latter hazard backe againe. |
5. In various phrases belonging to prec. senses.
| 1340 Ayenb. 171 He hise heþ folliche y-spended..and al ylayd to an hazard. 1530 Palsgr. 582/2, I play at the hazarde, or put a thynge in daunger, je hazarde. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 197 b, To abyde the hasarde of hys dishonour. Ibid. 222 To put the estate of y⊇ realme on [Grafton in] an yll hasard. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iv. ii. (1651) 628, I had rather marry a fair one, and put it to the hazard. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 91 Allured..to runne a bold hazard with him to the gates of Death. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. viii. 21 What a sad hazard a poor maiden..stands against the temptations of this world. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 2 ¶15 Lest they should put their reputation in hazard. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 368 They would have run such hazards getting home! 1834 Macaulay Ess., Pitt (1854) 304 To put both his power and his popularity to hazard. |
b. at hazard († hazards): (a) by chance, fortuitously, without design or plan; (b) at stake, in danger. at (to, with) the hazard of, at the risk of. at all hazards, at every hazard, at all risks, in spite of every peril. by hazard (F. par hasard) = at hazard. in hazard, in peril. on the hazard, at stake. out of hazard, out of peril.
| a 1547 Surrey in Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 19 In hazarde of his health. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 181 Selling al at hazard. Ibid. 260 My reputation, and my worship had beene in hazard. 1640 O. Sedgwicke Christs Counsell 24 He did let and suffer his spirituall estate to run on at hazards. 1641 Trapp Theologia Theol. 267 S. Hierome learnt Hebrew with the hazard of his life. a 1700 Dryden tr. Ovid's Art Love Wks. 1760 IV. 118 Some choose, and some at hazard seize their mate. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 304 It was resolved, at all hazards, to go. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 93 ¶10 No man can justly aspire to honour, but at the hazard of disgrace. 1801 C. Smith Solitary Wand. II. 337 The life of Montgomeri appeared to be out of hazard. 1804 Something Odd I. 126 He once saved me..to the imminent hazard of his own life. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar Ded. (1844) 2 The two following examples, taken at hazard. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) I. v. 235 He determined to relieve it at every hazard. 1846 Trench Mirac. xxi. (1862) 334 Where their worldly interests were at hazard. 1876 Darwin Cross-Fertil. ix. 339 Two plants taken by hazard were protected under separate nets. 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur v. xii, Messala's whole fortune was on the hazard. |
c. † to fall into (a person's) hazard, i.e. his power to hurt or harm: cf. danger n. 1. (Obs.) to make a hazard, to make a guess or venture.
| 1615 T. Adams Two Sonnes 75 At last they fall into the usurers hazard. 1850 B. Taylor Eldorado xi. (1862) 107 Making a hazard at the direction in which the trail ran. |
6. Real Tennis. Each of the winning openings in a tennis-court. hazard side, the side of the court into which the ball is served.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 263 We will in France..play a set, Shall strike his fathers Crowne into the hazard. 1611 Cotgr., Pelouse..also the lower hazard in a Tennis-court. 1642 Howell For. Trav. iii. (Arb.) 20 When at the racket court he had a ball struck into his hazard. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. v. 265 They that serve upon the Pent-house, are to serve behind the Blew on the Hazard side, else it is a loss. 1702 Boyer Dict. Royal, Trou..Le petit trou (au jeu de Paume), the hazard at Tennis. 1878 J. Marshall Ann. Tennis iv. 148 The positions of these various hazards, on a system which can only be excused by their name, seem to have been left very much to chance, or to the individual fancy of the builders of Courts. Ibid. 149 That writer says ‘The players on the hazard-side have two openings to defend, the last gallery and the grille’. 1891 Sat. Rev. LXXII. 690 The hazards, or winning openings, of modern tennis courts are three in number—the Dedans, the Grille, and the Winning-Gallery. To strike the ball into any one of these, at any point of the game, is to score a point. |
| fig. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Custom Country v. iv, Our adverse fortune Bandying us from one hazard to another. |
† 7. Billiards. One of the holes or pockets in the sides of a billiard table. Obs.
| 1598 Florio, Scaduta, a hole or hazard at billiard boord. 1679 Evelyn Diary 4 Dec., A billiard-table, with as many more hazards as ours commonly have. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 262/2 The Hazzards, the Holes in the four corners and sides of the..Billiard Table. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Billiards, Hazards, or holes, on the edges and corners. |
b. Hence, A stroke at billiards by which one of the balls is driven into a pocket.
losing hazard, winning hazard (see quot. 1856).
| 1778 C. Jones Hoyle's Games Impr. 197 Common Odds of the Hazards. 1836 T. Hook G. Gurney III. 153 Why, you cannot make a hazard, Gilbert; what is the matter? 1850 Bohn's Handbk. Games 532 The full (or straight) winning hazard should first be practised. 1856 Crawley Billiards (1859) 14 The Winning Hazard is one in which the object ball is struck with your own ball and sent into a pocket; the Losing Hazard is a stroke in which the striker's ball is pocketed from off, or after contact with, another. 1857 Chambers' Inform. II. 713 A white winning hazard is made when you play at the white ball and pocket it..A red winning hazard is when you pocket the red. |
8. Golf. A general term for bunkers, furze, water, sand, loose earth, or any kind of ‘bad ground’.
| 1857 Chambers' Inform. II. 693 He possibly drives his ball into some hazard—such as sand or whin-bushes—from which he is only extricated after expending several strokes in the operation. Ibid., Driving it over hazards, such as bunkers, whins, etc. 1879 Daily News 22 Mar. 5/2 At Wimbledon certainly there are some very good ‘hazards’, or perilous places. 1889 Linskill Golf ii. (1895) 8 The ground should be of an undulating character, and..should abound in hazards of every description. |
9. A cab-stand (in Ireland).
| 1882 Times 9 May, Being on a car ‘hazard’ (stand) at Parkgate-street on Saturday evening. 1884 Freeman's Jrnl. 5 Dec. 5/2 What about providing a hazard at each arrival platform?..the public would then know that it was beyond the power of a cab or cabman to refuse the first call. |
10. attrib. and Comb., as (from sense 1) hazard-bet, hazard-board, hazard-table, etc.; hazard side: see sense 6.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 30/26 Hazard play, alearum ludus. c 1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 301 There are two hazard boards. a 1737 Pope Wks. (1886) X. 263 Moralizing sat I by the hazard-table. 1829 Bengallee 109 Salary, wasted at keen Hazard-bets. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 65 His ill luck at the hazard table was such that his estates were daily becoming more and more encumbered. |
† B. adj. = hazardous. Obs. rare.
| 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. D iij, But one of more experience..Such hazard rash proceedings did not like. |
▪ II. ˈhazard, v.
Forms as in n.; also Sc. 6 haszard, hasert, hazaird, 7 haisard.
[a. F. hasarde-r (1407 in Hatz.-Darm., in sense ‘play at hazard’), f. hasard: see prec.]
1. a. trans. To put (anything) to the risk of being lost in a game of chance or other doubtful issue; to stake; to expose to hazard or risk.
| 1530 Palsgr. 582/2 It is a great folye for a man to hazarde his lyfe for the mucke of this world. 1547 J. Harrison Exhort. Scottes G j, For thinordinate gain wherof we do alwaies hazard our honoures, lifes, and countrey. 1614 Sir R. Dudley in Fortesc. Papers 11 Nor hazard the reputation of my owne workes under the discretion or skill of an other. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 206 At Passage, or In and In, they [Chinese] will hazard all their worth, themselves, wives, children and other substance. 1700 T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. Ser. & Com. 98 When a Sick Man leaves all for Nature to do, he hazards much. When he leaves all for the Doctor to do, he hazards more. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. iv. 263 He would not hazard the prize by clutching at it too soon. |
| absol. 1736 T. Lediard Life Marlborough II. 31 Unfortunate Gamesters..hazard on, thinking to recover their Loss. |
b. refl. To expose oneself to risk; to run or incur risks. Also intr. in same sense (obs.).
| 1549 Compl. Scot. xx. 176 Ȝe maye haszard and fecht quhen that ȝe think ȝour comodius tyme. 1567 Satir. Poems Reform. vii. 88 Nobillis, quha durst couragiouslie Hazaird thame self to saif vs. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 135 He shunnes blowes, and will not hazard himselfe, yet requires as much as wee who hazard our lives. 1653 Holcroft Procopius iv. 151 Thinke not that the Hunnes, Herulians, and Lombards will hazard to the death. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 157 Not willing to hazard himself on a Voyage undertaken only for Pleasure. |
2. a. trans. To run or take the risk of (a penalty or misfortune). Also with inf. obj.
| 1577 Ld. Buckhurst in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. II. 272 To hazard..your dishonor and her Ma. dislike. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. iii. 1451 What Censures thou shouldst hazzard, in thy stay. 1675 tr. Machiavelli's Prince (Rtldg. 1883) 282 He will hazard to be famished. 1686 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iv. (ed. 2) 93 That your Adversaries being forced to follow you, may hazzard stumbling. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 181 Hazards the breaking of the String. 1796 Hist. Ned Evans I. 179 Your son would..perish in the dust before he would hazard to offend her. 1824 Landor Wks. (1846) I. 223 They hazard to..break their shins by stemming the current. 1827 C. Bridges Exp. Ps. cxix. (1830) 78 We shall be ready to hazard all consequences. |
b. With obj. and inf.
| 1559 in Strype Ann. Ref. I. App. vi. 8 Hazarde..ourselves to be..drowned in the waters of schisme. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1292/2 Forced to..hazard himselfe to fall into the hands of naughtie people. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 480 It hides it self, and will not hazzard its tender flower to bee shaken. |
† 3. To endanger (any person or thing). Obs.
| 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 651/2 There will he lye in wayte, and..will daungerously hazarde the troubled souldiour. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 172 The king of Biarma in our times greatly hazarded the states of Pagu and Siam. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 868 Lillies limn'd on cheeks, and roses, With painted perfumes, hazard noses. 1716 S. Sewall Diary 22 Oct. (1882) III. 109 Mr. Lynde comes up from Nantasket, having..been much wearied and hazarded with the Storm. 1786 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 558 His death, with that of the king of Prussia, would hazard the tranquillity of Europe. |
† 4. To get by chance or luck; to chance upon.
| 1575 R. B. Appius & Virg. in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 132 Be you not afraid, And so you may happen to hazard the maid: It is but in hazard and may come by hap: Win her or lose her, try you the trap. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. iii. 155 Might not such Microscopes hazard the discovery of the Aerial Genii, and present even Spiritualities themselves to our view? |
5. a. To take the chance or risk of; to venture upon; to adventure, venture (to do something).
| 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 18 Who that otherwise hazardeth to enter into it, exposeth himselfe to a great danger. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 103 Not daring to hazard the fight, or by stratagem break out to hazard their deliverance. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. xxviii, That what both love, both hazard to destroy. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 175 ¶9 It is not believed..that the Enemy will hazard a Battle for the Relief of Douay. 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 84 Scarification was hazarded without being looked on as an approved Method. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 337 The Koles..rarely hazarded an action. |
b. To venture to offer (a statement, conjecture, or the like).
| 1758 Monthly Rev. 188 If one may be allowed to hazard a conjecture. 1788 Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 174, I have hazarded the few preceding pages. 1816 Coleridge Lay Serm. 314 [This] justifies me..in hazarding the bold assertion. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvii. 379 He did not hazard an explanation of the phenomenon. |
c. With quoted words as obj.
| 1881 Mrs. J. H. Riddell Sen. Partner III. xxxiii. 110 ‘I met Mr. Robert the other day,’ hazarded the clerk. 1903 R. Langbridge Flame & Flood vii. 108 ‘Love is so rare in this world,’ she hazarded. |
† 6. Billiards. To ‘pocket’ (a ball). Obs.
| 1679 Evelyn Diary 4 Dec., The game being only to prosecute the ball till hazarded, without passing the port..It is more difficult to hazard a ball..than in our table. |
Hence ˈhazarded ppl. a., risked, ventured.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. iii. 12 How to save hole her hazarded estate. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 26 These disagreeing dates are all hazarded conjectures. |