accident of birth
Appearance
English
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Noun
[edit]accident of birth (plural accidents of birth)
- (idiomatic) A fact, situation, or personal characteristic, which may be desirable or undesirable, resulting from the circumstances into which a person was born, and which is therefore entirely beyond their control.
- 1899, Charles W. Chesnutt, “Uncle Wellington's Wives”, in The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories:
- [H]e said to himself that he was a very good-looking man, and could have adorned a much higher sphere in life than that in which the accident of birth had placed him.
- 1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 4, in A Texas Ranger:
- "You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident of birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."
- 1915, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 9, in Heart of the Sunset:
- An accident of birth had made him a citizen of the United States—his father having owned a ranch which lay north instead of south of the Rio Grande.
Translations
[edit]situation or characteristic resulting from birth
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