matter of course
Something which is to be expected as following the natural course or order of things.
| 1739 [see course n. 37 a]. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas i. xii. (1866) 27 Having as a matter of course sold my cloak-bag. 1878 S. Walpole Hist. Engl. II. 525 Protestants guilty of killing Roman Catholics were acquitted, as a matter of course, by Protestant juries. 1884 Manch. Exam. 22 May 5/2 It was a matter of course that France should retain the territory she had conquered. |
b. attrib. or as adj. (written with hyphens), rarely as predicative adj.: Occurring or following as a matter of course; to be expected. Freq. of persons or their mode of action: Taking things as a matter of course.
| 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge liii, The cool matter-of-course manner of this reply. 1854 Lowell Jrnl. Italy Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 129 A sudden change in the scenery, like those that seem so matter-of-course in dreams. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxx, I won't have that sort of matter-of-course acquiescence. 1865 Mozley Mirac. v. 100 The belief in it is so necessary and so matter-of-course an act in us, that [etc.]. 1892 W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy 190, I said some matter-of-course words to the effect [etc.]. |
Hence matter-of-ˈcourseness nonce-wd.
| 1890 Temple Bar Sept. 78 A naturalness, a matter-of-courseness that admitted of no questioning. |