happening
[hap-uh-ning]
- something that happens; occurrence; event.
- an unconventional dramatic or artistically orchestrated performance, often a series of discontinuous events involving audience participation.
- any event considered worthwhile, unusual, or interesting.
Show More
Origin of happening
Synonyms
See more synonyms for happening on Thesaurus.com1. incident, episode, instance, affair, case.
happen
[hap-uh n]
- to take place; come to pass; occur: Something interesting is always happening in New York.
- to come to pass by chance; occur without apparent reason or design: Don't ask me what caused it—it just happened, that's all.
- to have the fortune or lot (to do or be as specified); chance: I happened to see him on the street.
- to befall, as to a person or thing: Something dreadful has happened to me.
- to meet or discover by chance (usually followed by on or upon): to happen on a clue to a mystery.
- to be, come, go, etc., casually or by chance: My friend happened along.
- Slang. to be very exciting or interesting: That party was happening!
Show More
Origin of happen
Synonyms
See more synonyms for happen on Thesaurus.com1. betide. Happen, chance, occur refer to the taking place of an event. Happen, which originally denoted the taking place by hap or chance, is now the most general word for coming to pass: Something has happened. Chance suggests the accidental nature of an event: It chanced to rain that day. Occur is often interchangeable with happen, but is more formal, and is usually more specific as to time and event: His death occurred the following year.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for happening
Contemporary Examples
In this war, the targeting is often happening on computer monitors thousands of miles away, capturing images from drones.
And that may well be what is happening in the Barnett Shale region around, yes, Dallas and Irving.
Make no mistake: The technology exists—has existed for a long while—to stop this from happening.
“When Tanveer realized what was happening, he jumped out of the truck, but the Iranians shot him,” Abdullah says.
Just being able to be in the loop when something is happening, it just works.
Historical Examples
What might not be happening to Corney, she thought, while she was on the way to his rescue!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Sidney's heart, considering what was happening to it, behaved very well.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Linda could not tell what was happening from the murmur of voices.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
As soon as Lloyd began to realize what was happening, her face grew radiant.
The Little ColonelAnnie Fellows Johnston
Comrade Ossipon had no settled conception now of what was happening to him.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
happening
- an occurrence; event
- an improvised or spontaneous display or performance consisting of bizarre and haphazard events
Show More
- informal fashionable and up-to-the-minute
Show More
happen
- (intr) (of an event in time) to come about or take place; occur
- (intr foll by to) (of some unforeseen circumstance or event, esp death), to fall to the lot (of); be a source of good or bad fortune (to)if anything happens to me, it'll be your fault
- (tr) to chance (to be or do something)I happen to know him
- (tr; takes a clause as object) to be the case, esp if by chance, thatit happens that I know him
Show More
- Northern English dialect
- another word for perhaps
- (as sentence modifier)happen I'll see thee tomorrow
Show More
Word Origin
C14: see hap 1, -en 1
xref
See occur
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 happening
n.
mid-15c., "chance, luck," from present participle of happen; meaning "occurrence" is 1550s. Sense of "spontaneous event or display" is from 1959 in the argot of artists. Happenings "events" was noted by Fowler as a vogue word from c.1905.
Show More
happen
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper