hazard

views updated May 23 2018

haz·ard / ˈhazərd/ • n. 1. a danger or risk: the hazards of smoking. ∎  a potential source of danger: a fire hazard a health hazard. ∎  a permanent feature of a golf course that presents an obstruction to playing a shot, such as a bunker or stream.2. poetic/lit. chance; probability.3. a gambling game using two dice, in which the chances are complicated by arbitrary rules. • v. [tr.] 1. venture to say (something): he hazarded a guess.2. put (something) at risk of being lost: the cargo business is too risky to hazard money on.

hazard

views updated May 29 2018

hazard
1. A situation or event whose realization has the potential for damage to human life, society, the economy, or the environment. See also hazard and operability study.

2. A potential or actual malfunction of a logic circuit during change(s) of state of input variables. Hazards result from the nonideal behavior of actual switching elements, e.g. noninstantaneous operation, turn-on time different from turn-off time.

In the UK the word hazard is sometimes used as the equivalent of race condition.

hazard

views updated May 23 2018

hazard game at dice XIII; chance, venture XIV; risk, peril XVI. — (O)F. hasard, perh. — Sp. azar — Arab. az-zahr, az-zār gaming die.
So hazard vb., hazardous XVI.