Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A contest in which tokens are distributed or sold, the winning token or tokens being secretly predetermined or ultimately selected in a random drawing.
- n. A selection made by lot from a number of applicants or competitors: The state uses a lottery to assign spaces in the campground.
- n. An activity or event regarded as having an outcome depending on fate: They considered combat duty a lottery.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Distribution of anything by lot; allotment; also, the drawing of lots; determination by chance or fate; random choice; matter of chance: as, the lottery of life.
- n. A scheme for raising money by selling chances to share in a distribution of prizes; more specifically, a scheme for the distribution of prizes by chance among persons purchasing tickets, the correspondingly numbered slips, or lots, representing prizes or blanks, being drawn from a wheel on a day previously announced in connection with the scheme of intended prizes. In law the term lottery embraces all schemes for the distribution of prizes by chance, such as policy-playing, gift-exhibitions, prize-concerts, raffles at fairs, etc., and includes various forms of gambling. Most of the governments of the continent of Europe have at different periods raised money for public purposes by means of lotteries; and a small sum was raised in America during the Revolution by a lottery authorized by the Continental Congress. Both state and private lotteries have been forbidden by law in Great Britain and in nearly all of the United States, Louisiana and Kentucky being the two notable exceptions.
- n. The lot or portion falling to one's share; a chance allotment or prize.
- n. A children's picture or print.
Wiktionary
- n. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks.
- n. figuratively An affair of chance.
- n. obsolete, Shakespeare Allotment; a thing allotted.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Fig. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance; esp., a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, and the rest of the tickets are blanks. An affair of chance.
- n. obsolete Allotment; thing allotted.
WordNet 3.0
- n. players buy (or are given) chances and prizes are distributed by casting lots
- n. something that is regarded as a chance event
Etymologies
- from Italian lotteria, from the same root as Old English hlot (cognate with lot) (Wiktionary)
- French loterie, probably from Dutch loterije, from Middle Dutch, from lot, lot. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“_generous_ -- not to say _brave_ -- opponents betook themselves to the county of Anderson, in this Judicial Circuit, and with great difficulty got up an indictment against us, under an old statute, forgotten by gentlemen of the bar, for _advertising a Baltimore lottery scheme_; when they themselves, and their relatives, were dealing in the _Art Union lottery_ in this city!”
“But like Dunleavy, a spot in lottery is waiting for him.”
“You think the lottery is a shell game you should investigate social security, medicare, medicade. .etc..etc ..”
“I understand the lottery is aimed at people who want to win money and those who are well off already are unlikely to play.”
“A walk that took me right past the deli with the sign telling me that the lottery is at $340million.”
“Oh, and for perspective, the lottery is a game of chance in which you wage a dollar per guess to see if your numbers are then drawn which would then cause you to “win” some money.”
Think Progress » Friedman Defends Repeated Prediction That ‘The Next Six Months Are Crucial’ In Iraq
“It has been said that the lottery is a tax on the mathematically-disinclined.”
“The father of the family tried to buy $100 in lottery tickets with the credit.”
“The film opens with a quote from Geoffrey Canada, the CEO of Harlem Children's Zone (one of the programs whose lottery is featured in the film).”
The Huffington Post: Susan Deily-Swearingen: Superman Revealed
“RPTM6 (UID#1840) on September 19th, 2009 at 12: 42 pm the odds of winning a scratch ticket are actually pretty good. they start at $1 and you rarely get one where you dont win anything. now the normal lottery is for idiots”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lottery’.
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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 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Drabble-writing prompt words
Words that are good prompts for writing drabbles (fanfic)
blasphemy, miscreant, je taime, phantasmagoria, lottery, dustup, whizz-bang, maelstrom, tryst, secret alliance, skinny dipping, tingle and 8 more...
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Instant List
Things that are instant.
noodles, messenger, coffee, approval, breakfast, camera, attraction, espresso, eye lift, facelift, film, gratification and 26 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Lotto's Words
lotto, lottery, government, value, regressive, tax, play lotto
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lottery.
reesetee *facepalm* Jan 10, 2008
oroboros Buy your lottery tickets on a Friday! If you buy your ticket earlier than Friday, your chance of winning the lottery the following Saturday is lower than your chance of being run over by a car before you're able to claim your prize! The chance of winning the California lottery in any given week is roughly 1 in 18,000,000 and the chance of being run over by a car in that state during a 24-hour period is roughly the same.
--Why Do Buses Come in Threes? by Eastaway and Wyndham Jan 10, 2008