| English Dictionary |
CASUAL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does casual mean?
• CASUAL (adjective)
The adjective CASUAL has 9 senses:
1. marked by blithe unconcern
2. without or seeming to be without plan or method; offhand
3. appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions
4. occurring or appearing or singled out by chance
5. hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
6. occurring on a temporary or irregular basis
7. characterized by a feeling of irresponsibility
8. natural and unstudied
9. not showing effort or strain
Familiarity information: CASUAL used as an adjective is familiar.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by blithe unconcern
Synonyms:
casual; insouciant; nonchalant
Context example:
was polite in a teasing nonchalant manner
Similar:
unconcerned (lacking in interest or care or feeling)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Without or seeming to be without plan or method; offhand
Context example:
information collected by casual methods and in their spare time
Similar:
unplanned (without apparent forethought or prompting or planning)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions
Synonyms:
Context example:
everyday clothes
Similar:
informal (not formal)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Occurring or appearing or singled out by chance
Synonyms:
casual; chance
Context example:
a chance occurrence
Similar:
unplanned (without apparent forethought or prompting or planning)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
Synonyms:
casual; cursory; passing; perfunctory; superficial
Context example:
In his paper, he showed a very superficial understanding of psychoanalytic theory
Similar:
careless (marked by lack of attention or consideration or forethought or thoroughness; not careful)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Occurring on a temporary or irregular basis
Synonyms:
casual; occasional
Context example:
an occasional worker
Similar:
irregular (contrary to rule or accepted order or general practice)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Characterized by a feeling of irresponsibility
Synonyms:
casual; fooling
Context example:
a broken back is nothing to be casual about; it is no fooling matter
Similar:
light (psychologically light; especially free from sadness or troubles)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Natural and unstudied
Synonyms:
casual; free-and-easy
Context example:
lectured in a free-and-easy style
Similar:
informal (not formal)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Not showing effort or strain
Synonyms:
casual; effortless
Context example:
careless grace
Similar:
easy (posing no difficulty; requiring little effort)
Derivation:
casualness (a casual manner)
Context examples
You will be out and about more, and you will find getting ahead in your work to be easier because your circle of friends, acquaintances, and casual contacts will grow and help you.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Ceremonies can be casual or formal.
(Ceremony, NCI Dictionary)
He is affectionate to casual acquaintances, but he dislikes his father, loathes his mother, and is not on speaking terms with his wife.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He ran out and ran in, smoked incessantly, played snatches on his violin, sank into reveries, devoured sandwiches at irregular hours, and hardly answered the casual questions which I put to him.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
If I had been a casual passer-by, I should have probably supposed that some childless person lay dead in it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Slowly, deliberately, without excitement or more than the most casual interest, he followed the course of the strange stream toward the sky-line and saw it emptying into a bright and shining sea.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Pacing back and forth the length of the hatchways and savagely chewing the end of a cigar, was the man whose casual glance had rescued me from the sea.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
One morning he spent in town, and I learned from a casual reference that he had visited the British Museum.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Their casual edging across the sidewalk to the curb, as they drew near, apprised him of discovery.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished trait of integrity or benevolence, that might rescue him from the attacks of Mr. Darcy; or at least, by the predominance of virtue, atone for those casual errors under which she would endeavour to class what Mr. Darcy had described as the idleness and vice of many years' continuance.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"The low fig can be climbed by everyone." (Albanian proverb)
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"The lazy donkey always overloads himself." (Cypriot proverb)