Definition of "by accident" []

• Accidentally; unintentionally; without meaning to; as the result of an event not expected, aided, or designed by one's will. (adverb)
• As the result of some undesigned, unintended, unrelated, natural, or random occurrence; as the unexpected and unforeseen result of formerly unrelated factors. (adverb)
• By chance; unexpectedly; as the result of an unrelated series of events. (adverb)
• Accidental; as the result of some unforeseen happening or series of events; unexpected; resulting from an event without the foresight, expectation, aid, or design of the person by whose agency it was caused; unintentional. (adjective)

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• "I read in the newspaper today: A Negro Arrested and Shot, whether by accident or design we cannot say."
• "As he turned his F-16 back home, Hammer took one last look at the wreckage of flight N-348 Zulu, soon to be pored over by accident investigators."
• "I have lately by accident got a sight of a single volume (the 3d.) of the Abbe Barruel's ` Antisocial conspiracy, 'which gives me the first idea I have ever had of what is meant by the Illuminatism against which ` illuminate Morse' as he is now called, & his ecclesiastical & monarchical associates have been making such a hue and cry."