casual

• casuall (obsolete)

From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæʒuəl/, /ˈkæʒwəl/, /ˈkæʒəl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʒuəl/, /ˈkaʒjuəl/, /ˈkazjuəl/, /ˈkaʒəl/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛʒʉɘl/, /ˈkɛʒɘl/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /-uæl/
• Hyphenation: ca‧su‧al, cas‧ual, casu‧al

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casual (comparative more casual, superlative most casual)

1. Happening by chance.
   • Washington Irving

     casual breaks, in the general system

   They only had casual meetings.

2. Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.
   • Nathaniel Hawthorne

     a constant habit, rather than a casual gesture

   The purchase of donuts was just a casual expense.

3. Employed irregularly.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 17, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.

   He was just a casual worker.

4. Careless.
   • 2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus (page 117)

     I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee.

5. Happening or coming to pass without design.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess‎:

     It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.

6. Informal, relaxed.
7. Designed for informal or everyday use.

• (happening by chance): accidental, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, random
• (happening or coming to pass without design): unexpected
• (relaxed; everyday use): informal

• (happening by chance): inevitable, necessary
• (happening or coming to pass without design): expected, scheduled
• (relaxed; everyday use): ceremonial, formal

• casually
• casualization
• smart casual

casual (plural casuals)

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
2. A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
3. (Britain) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see Casual (subculture).
4. One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
5. (video games, informal, derogatory) A player of casual games.

   The devs dumbed the game down so the casuals could enjoy it.

6. (dated) (Britain) A tramp.
   • 1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14:

     I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character.

• casualty
• case

• casual in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• Calusa, casula, causal

casual (masculine and feminine plural casuals)

1. casual
2. unplanned

• casualitat
• casualment

casual m or f (plural casuais, comparable)

1. casual (happening by chance)
2. casual (coming without regularity)
3. casual (designed for informal or everyday use)

• (happening by chance): fortuito
• (coming without regularity): ocasional

casual (plural casuales)

1. casual
2. accidental

• casualmente