casualty
[kazh-oo-uh l-tee]
- Military.
- a member of the armed forces lost to service through death, wounds, sickness, capture, or because his or her whereabouts or condition cannot be determined.
- casualties,loss in numerical strength through any cause, as death, wounds, sickness, capture, or desertion.
- one who is injured or killed in an accident: There were no casualties in the traffic accident.
- any person, group, thing, etc., that is harmed or destroyed as a result of some act or event: Their house was a casualty of the fire.
- a serious accident, especially one involving bodily injury or death.
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Origin of casualty
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for casualties
Contemporary Examples
Thankfully there were no casualties—the driver managed to stop the train immediately.
Among the casualties with the most dangerous implications for their future is education.
Like Cohen, many of these casualties were white Democrats from below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Add the fighting before that, and the American casualties came to over 62,000.
PKK sources say they suffered no casualties—they insist there was also an artillery bombardment on their bases.
Historical Examples
In the last half dozen years there had not been three casualties.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
Yet they were subject to a raking fire that cost them hundreds of casualties.
On the Union side the casualties were one killed, and two wounded.
Their casualties were reported as three killed and twelve wounded.
By this time, however, the casualties had ceased to excite attention; they were too numerous.
The DownfallEmile Zola
casualty
- a serviceman who is killed, wounded, captured, or missing as a result of enemy action
- a person who is injured or killed in an accident
- a hospital department in which victims of accidents, violence, etc, are treated
- anything that is lost, damaged, or destroyed as the result of an accident, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for casualties
casualty
n.
early 15c., "chance, accident; incidental charge," from casual (adj.) on model of royalty, penalty, etc. Casuality had some currency 16c.-17c. but is now obsolete. Meaning "losses in numbers from a military or other troop" is from late 15c. Meaning "an individual killed, wounded, or lost in battle" is from 1844.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper