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ACCIDENTALLY
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I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Without advance planning
Example:
they met accidentally
Synonyms:
accidentally; by chance; circumstantially; unexpectedly
Classified under:
Antonym:
deliberately (with intention; in an intentional manner)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Without intention; in an unintentional manner
Example:
she hit him unintentionally
Synonyms:
accidentally; unintentionally
Classified under:
Antonym:
deliberately (with intention; in an intentional manner)
Pertainym:
accidental (happening by chance or unexpectedly or unintentionally)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Of a minor or subordinate nature
Example:
these magnificent achievements were only incidentally influenced by Oriental models
Synonyms:
accidentally; incidentally
Classified under:
Adverbs
Context examples:
Then it amounts to this, Mr. Soames: that, unless the Indian student recognized the roll as being proofs, the man who tampered with them came upon them accidentally without knowing that they were there.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You may find the same product at a considerably lower price only a month later. You may accidentally drop the product soon after you buy it and not have insurance to cover the repair, but have it fixed anyway and later find the item never worked right.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Then she placed the can before her, and turned the tap, and while the beer was running she would not let her eyes be idle, but looked up at the wall, and after much peering here and there, saw a pick-axe exactly above her, which the masons had accidentally left there.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
He had reached it late the night before, was come for a day or two, was staying at the Crown, had accidentally met with a navy officer or two of his acquaintance since his arrival, but had no object of that kind in coming.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
By the report which he hastened over to Kellynch to make, Admiral Croft was a native of Somersetshire, who having acquired a very handsome fortune, was wishing to settle in his own country, and had come down to Taunton in order to look at some advertised places in that immediate neighbourhood, which, however, had not suited him; that accidentally hearing—(it was just as he had foretold, Mr Shepherd observed, Sir Walter's concerns could not be kept a secret,)—accidentally hearing of the possibility of Kellynch Hall being to let, and understanding his (Mr Shepherd's) connection with the owner, he had introduced himself to him in order to make particular inquiries, and had, in the course of a pretty long conference, expressed as strong an inclination for the place as a man who knew it only by description could feel; and given Mr Shepherd, in his explicit account of himself, every proof of his being a most responsible, eligible tenant.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The general, perceiving his son one night at the theatre to be paying considerable attention to Miss Morland, had accidentally inquired of Thorpe if he knew more of her than her name.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
“You are not busy, Mr. Heep?” said Traddles, whose eye the cunning red eye accidentally caught, as it at once scrutinized and evaded us.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mrs. Dashwood was denied; but before the carriage could turn from the house, her husband accidentally came out.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I was assured that, a year or two before my arrival, Flimnap would infallibly have broke his neck, if one of the king’s cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She had never heard of him before his entrance into the —shire Militia, in which he had engaged at the persuasion of the young man who, on meeting him accidentally in town, had there renewed a slight acquaintance.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
