casual

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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casual (comparative more casual, superlative most casual)

  1. Happening by chance.
    They only had casual meetings.
  2. Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.
    The purchase of donuts was just a casual expense.
  3. Employed irregularly.
    He was just a casual worker.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.
  4. Careless.
    • 2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus, page 117:
      I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee.
  5. Happening or coming to pass without design.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.
    • 2012, Jeff Miller, Grown at Glen Garden: Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and the Little Texas Golf Course that Propelled Them to Stardom:
      Hogan assumed the entire creek bed was to be played as a casual hazard, moved his ball out and assessed himself a one-stroke penalty.
  7. (of behavior, usage, or milieu) Informal; relaxed.
    tone in casual interactions
  9. (of clothing or utensils) Designed for informal or everyday use.
    Hyponym: business casual
    pants in the casual wear collection

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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casual (plural casuals)

  1. (British, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
  2. A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
  4. (UK, historical) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).
    Synonyms: dresser, (Manchester) Perry boy
    • 2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear.
  5. One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
  6. (video games, informal, derogatory) A player of casual games.
    The devs dumbed the game down so the casuals could enjoy it.
  7. (fandom slang) A person whose engagement with media is relaxed or superficial.
    • 1972, Lee C. Garrison, "The Needs of Motion Picture Audiences", California Management Review, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 1972, page 149:
      Casuals outnumbered regulars in the art-house audience two to one.
    • 2010, Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, page 16:
      Most often, when a series is marketed toward casuals, the loyals feel that their interests and needs are not being met.
    • 2018, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta in the Room: Sherlock and the Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, page 91:
      Treating a gay relationship as a puzzle that must be pursued by the clever viewers and hidden from “casuals” until a narrative reveal at the eleventh hour seems antithetical to the idea of normalized representation that TJLCers claim as the main reason they want Johnlock to be canon, […]
  8. (British, dated) A tramp.
    • 1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14:
      I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character.
  9. (in the plural) Shoes suitable for everyday use, as opposed to more formal footwear.
    • 1948 December, “Shoes: Competition Is Back”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 47, column 2:
      Next spring you’ll see more women than ever wearing “casuals” and “flats,” the shoes with the wedge heels or no heels at all.
    • 1959, The Medical Officer, page 158:
      In girls wearing casuals, ugly hypertrophied skin over the heels was frequently noted, probably due to the loose shoe moving as they walked.
    • 1967, Kenneth Tynan, Tynan Right & Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 65:
      Like his friends, he is wearing casuals, ideal for lounging around crypts.
    • 1984, William Golding, The Paper Men, page 71:
      He and I were wearing casuals […]

Translations

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References

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin cāsuālis.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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casual m or f (masculine and feminine plural casuals)

  1. casual
  2. unplanned

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin cāsuālis.

Pronunciation

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  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ka.zuˈaw/ [ka.zʊˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /kaˈzwaw/ [kaˈzwaʊ̯]
 

  • Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
  • Hyphenation: ca‧su‧al

Adjective

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casual m or f (plural casuais)

  1. casual (happening by chance)
    Synonym: fortuito
  2. casual (coming without regularity)
    Synonym: ocasional
  3. casual (designed for informal or everyday use)

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Spanish

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Etymology

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From Latin cāsuālis.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kaˈswal/ [kaˈswal]
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Syllabification: ca‧sual

Adjective

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casual m or f (masculine and feminine plural casuales)

  1. casual
  2. accidental
  3. coincidental, chance

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Cebuano: kaswal

Further reading

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