casualty

A serious or fatal accident. A person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed. A disastrous occurrence due to sudden, unexpected, or unusual cause. Accident; misfortune or mishap; that which comes by chance or without design. A loss from such an event or cause, as by fire, shipwreck, lightning, etc.

An inevitable casualty is one that occurs through no fault of anyone. It happens totally without design, as in the case of an accident resulting from an act of God, such as a house struck by lightning or flooded by a storm.

A casualty loss is a tax deduction that can be taken for an accident that is incurred in a trade or business, in a transaction entered into for profit, or for the complete or partial loss or destruction of property owned by the taxpayer. It arises from certain specific events such as a fire, an auto accident, or a flood. Casualty losses are computed subject to special rules and are treated as itemized deductions.

Many people purchase casualty insurance so that they will be protected or covered in the event of specific misfortune or accident. It is a type of insurance that covers losses resulting from injuries to people.

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casualty n. 1) an accident which could not have been foreseen or guarded against, such as a shipwreck caused by storm or fire caused by lightning. 2) the loss, as in life, from such an unavoidable accident. The courts remain inconsistent on the exact definition. (See: casualty loss)

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casualty noun accident, adversity, affliction, backset, bad fortune, blight, calamity, catastrophe, contretemps, débâcle, disaster, emergency, hardship, ill fortune, ill hap, incident, infliction, injury, misadventure, mischance, mishap, serious accident, setback, tragedy, unforeseen accident, unfortunate accident, unfortunate occurence
Associated concepts: casualty insurance, casualty loss

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See also: accident, corpse, damage, disaster, expense, fatality, happenstance, misfortune, quirk, sacrifice, tragedy, victim