Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An unfortunate accident.
  • noun Archaic Bad luck.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To happen or turn out ill; go wrong.
  • noun An unfortunate or evil hap; mischance; misfortune.
  • noun A lapse from virtue.
  • noun Synonyms Mischance, Disaster, etc. See misfortune.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Evil accident; ill luck; misfortune; mischance.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To happen unluckily; -- used impersonally.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An accident, mistake, or problem.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an instance of misfortune
  • noun an unpredictable outcome that is unfortunate

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • mishap, n. military euphemism for a terrible crash

    Washington Post, 19 January 2016:

    Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

    ...

    These accidents are categorized by the military as Class A: mishaps that destroyed the aircraft or caused at least $2 million in damage.

    February 2, 2016