| English Dictionary |
LUCK
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Dictionary entry overview: What does luck mean?
• LUCK (noun)
The noun LUCK has 3 senses:
1. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
2. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
3. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome
Familiarity information: LUCK used as a noun is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion
Context example:
success that was her portion
Hypernyms ("luck" is a kind of...):
condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "luck"):
good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)
providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)
bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)
failure (lack of success)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Synonyms:
Context example:
we ran into each other by pure chance
Hypernyms ("luck" is a kind of...):
phenomenon (any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "luck"):
bad luck; mischance; mishap (an unpredictable outcome that is unfortunate)
even chance; toss-up; tossup (an unpredictable phenomenon)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Synonyms:
fortune; luck
Context example:
it was as if fortune guided his hand
Hypernyms ("luck" is a kind of...):
phenomenon (any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "luck"):
fluke; good fortune; good luck (a stroke of luck)
Derivation:
lucky (occurring by chance)
lucky (having or bringing good fortune)
Context examples
Again, when he was weak, it was his luck that none of the larger preying animals chanced upon him.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Where did you get the seed? or is it only your good luck?
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Only fools, with the blind luck of fools, could have made it.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Once I lost myself, and it was only by good luck, and after an hour of wandering, that I found the camp once more.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When he is married, if we have the good luck to live to another war, we shall see him do as you and I, and a great many others, have done.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The luck that this aspect delivers is impossible to overstate.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
“Grub. Of a larger appetite and more luck in satisfying it.”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
“What a stroke of luck! Quick, madam, bring it here!”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But the most dreadful ill-luck pursued me.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Nor did he have much better luck with the other three books.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself." (Native American proverb, Pima)
"If patience is sour then its result is sweet." (Arabic proverb)
"Money sticks to another money." (Croatian proverb)