Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Occurring by chance. See Synonyms at chance.
- adj. Occurring at irregular or infrequent intervals; occasional: casual employment at a factory; a casual correspondence with a former teacher.
- adj. Unpremeditated; offhand: a casual remark.
- adj. Being without ceremony or formality; relaxed: a casual evening with friends.
- adj. Suited for everyday wear or use; informal.
- adj. Not serious or thorough; superficial: a casual inspection.
- adj. Showing little interest or concern; nonchalant: a casual disregard for cold weather.
- adj. Lenient; permissive: a casual attitude toward drugs.
- adj. Not close or intimate; passing: a casual acquaintance with avant-garde music.
- n. One that serves or appears at irregular intervals, especially a temporary worker.
- n. Casualwear: sent my casuals to the cleaners.
- n. A soldier temporarily attached to a unit while awaiting permanent assignment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Happening or coming to pass without (apparent) cause, without design on the part of the agent, in an unaccountable manner, or as a mere coincidence or accident; coming by chance; accidental; fortuitous; indeterminate: as, a casual encounter.
- Occasional; coming at uncertain times, or without regularity, in distinction from stated or regular; incidental: as, casual expenses.
- n. A person who receives relief and shelter for one night at the most in a workhouse or police-station, or who receives treatment in a hospital for an accidental injury.
- n. A laborer or an artisan employed only irregularly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Happening by chance.
- adj. Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.
- adj. Employed irregularly
- adj. Careless.
- adj. Happening or coming to pass without design.
- adj. Informal, relaxed.
- adj. Designed for informal use.
- n. A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
- n. A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Happening or coming to pass without design, and without being foreseen or expected; accidental; fortuitous; coming by chance.
- adj. Coming without regularity; occasional; incidental.
- n. One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. occurring or appearing or singled out by chance
- adj. natural and unstudied
- adj. hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
- adj. not showing effort or strain
- adj. characterized by a feeling of irresponsibility
- adj. occurring from time to time
- adj. without or seeming to be without plan or method; offhand.
- adj. appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions
- adj. marked by blithe unconcern
Etymologies
- Middle English casuel, from Old French, from Latin cāsuālis, from cāsus, event; see case1.
Examples
“In a way, I think the issue here is that there are two very different senses of the term casual that we could think about with the MMOG marketplace.”
“More pertinently, I'm deeply dubious about the word "casual" when it comes to relationships of the heart.”
“They've really just been having what they describe as casual conversations with him.”
“After going through what she referred to as a casual psychological interview and weeks of daily injections of hormones (similar to the hormones her own body produces, but at much higher doses), Shield produced approximately 26 eggs.”
“Street conversations are good practice, for sure, but people in casual conversations are not going to correct your errors, if only because they are too polite to do so.”
“The wildlife officer, in casual conversation, asks Hunter Joe where that deer came from.”
“As to exactly what happens if you fail to renew the trust, I don't really know, although in casual conversations with my notario publico he assured me that it would NEVER fall out of my control.”
“The key to understanding the Ellis Island model (as well as the history of American immigration) is to realize that there is a huge difference between “immigration”, the way the word is used in casual conversation and what it means in the rest of the world, e.g.,”
“Two men (Jorge Puerta Armenta and Fernando Suels Mendoza) in casual clothes set "Full Moon" in motion, arcing empty water bottles that break the silence with a whistling sound.”
“The free podcasts are each roughly one half hour long and are humorous, informative, and remain casual enough in nature that you don't have to have a PhD in crypotlinguistics to follow them, though a background in alien dialects certainly never hurts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘casual’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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bestiary
agave, incunable, echt, wissenschaft, friscalating, obsolescence, clavier, yajna, ecstatic, casual, protean, hum and 41 more...
Prolagus 19215 is the casual number par excellence. See bugs. Dec 24, 2008