luck of the draw

English

Etymology

An allusion to the random manner in which playing cards are distributed or "drawn" in many card games.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

luck of the draw (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) The random production of favorable or unfavorable results; chance.
   • 1973, Sheila Sutcliffe, Martello Towers, →ISBN, page 63:

     [A] dry ditch or moat . . . should have been constructed around towers in particularly exposed or vulnerable positions but in some cases it seems that they were selected by the luck of the draw.

   • 1996 May 21, Carey Goldberg, “Best-Selling Author, but Not at Home”, in New York Times, retrieved 8 June 2013:

     [I]s it merely the luck of the draw that turns some novels into blockbusters and others of equal merit into also-rans?

   • 2005 August 10, “What You Need to Know on Smoking and Lung Cancer”, in Time:

     If you've never been a smoker and you develop lung cancer, how did you get it? Is it genetics, environment, radon, luck of the draw?

Synonyms

• happenstance

References

• “luck of the draw”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.