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Webster 1913 Edition


Event

E-vent′

,
Noun.
[L.
eventus
, fr.
evenire
to happen, come out;
e
out +
venire
to come. See
Come
.]
1.
That which comes, arrives, or happens; that which falls out; any incident, good or bad.
“The events of his early years.”
Macaulay.
To watch quietly the course of
events
.
Jowett (Thucyd. )
There is one
event
to the righteous, and to the wicked.
Eccl. ix. 2.
2.
An affair in hand; business; enterprise.
[Obs.]
“Leave we him to his events.”
Shak.
3.
The consequence of anything; the issue; conclusion; result; that in which an action, operation, or series of operations, terminates.
Syn. – Incident; occurrence; adventure; issue; result; termination; consequence; conclusion.
Event
,
Occurrence
,
Incident
,
Circumstance
. An event denotes that which arises from a preceding state of things. Hence we speak or watching the event; of tracing the progress of events. An occurrence has no reference to any antecedents, but simply marks that which meets us in our progress through life, as if by chance, or in the course of divine providence. The things which thus meet us, if important, are usually connected with antecedents; and hence event is the leading term. In the “Declaration of Independence” it is said, “When, in the cource of human events, it becomes necessary.” etc. Here, occurrences would be out of place. An incident is that which falls into a state of things to which is does not primarily belong; as, the incidents of a journey. The term is usually applied to things of secondary importance. A circumstance is one of the things surrounding us in our path of life. These may differ greatly in importance; but they are always outsiders, which operate upon us from without, exerting greater or less influence according to their intrinsic importance. A person giving an account of a campaign might dwell on the leading events which it produced; might mention some of its striking occurrences; might allude to some remarkable incidents which attended it; and might give the details of the favorable or adverse circumstances which marked its progress.

E-vent′

,
Verb.
T.
[F.
éventer
to fan, divulge, LL.
eventare
to fan, fr., L.
e
out +
ventus
wind.]
To break forth.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson.

Webster 1828 Edition


Event

EVENT'

,
Noun.
[L. eventus, evenio; e and venio, to come.]
1.
That which comes, arrives or happens; that which falls out; any incident good or bad.
There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. Eccles.9.
2.
The consequence of any thing; the issue; conclusion; end; that in which an action, operation, or series of operations terminates. The event of the campaign was to being about a negotiation for peace.

EVENT'

,
Verb.
I.
To break forth. [Not used.]

Definition 2024


event

event

See also: évent

English

Noun

event (plural events)

  1. An occurrence; something that happens.
    • Macaulay
      the events of his early years
  2. An end result; an outcome (now chiefly in phrases).
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.3:
      hard beginnings have many times prosperous events […].
    • 1707, Semele, by Eccles and Congrieve; scene 8
      Of my ill boding Dream / Behold the dire Event.
    • Young
      dark doubts between the promise and event
    In the event, he turned out to have what I needed anyway.
  3. (physics) A point in spacetime having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate.
  4. (computing) A possible action that the user can perform that is monitored by an application or the operating system (event listener). When an event occurs an event handler is called which performs a specific task.
  5. (probability theory) A set of some of the possible outcomes; a subset of the sample space.
    If is a random variable representing the toss of a six-sided die, then its sample space could be denoted as {1,2,3,4,5,6}. Examples of events could be: , , and .
  6. (obsolete) An affair in hand; business; enterprise.
    • Shakespeare
      Leave we him to his events.
  7. (medicine) An episode of severe health conditions.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

External links

  • event in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • event in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911