Casualties


Military.

a member of the armed forces lost to service through death, wounds, sickness, capture, or because his or her whereabouts or condition cannot be determined.
casualties, loss in numerical strength through any cause, as death, wounds, sickness, capture, or desertion.

one who is injured or killed in an accident:
There were no casualties in the traffic accident.
any person, group, thing, etc., that is harmed or destroyed as a result of some act or event:
Their house was a casualty of the fire.
a serious accident, especially one involving bodily injury or death.
Contemporary Examples

No Israeli casualties have been reported thus far, although one man was reportedly seriously injured when a rocket struck his car.
Numbers Don’t Tell the Mideast Story Thane Rosenbaum July 9, 2014

Add the fighting before that, and the American casualties came to over 62,000.
Blood in the Sand: When James Jones Wrote a Grunt’s View of D-Day James Jones November 14, 2014

Among these 312 casualties, 61, or roughly 20 percent, were children and 28 were female.
Bodies for Ballots Yousef Munayyer November 14, 2012

Union forces had suffered about 50,000 casualties; the Confederates, about 32,000.
David’s Bookclub: Battle Cry of Freedom David Frum May 22, 2013

When General David Petraeus implemented the surge, it was estimated that there were an additional 50 American casualties a month.
Ignoring Iraq’s Lessons Elise Jordan November 30, 2009

Historical Examples

Only 15 casualties were reported from the whole Brigade, none of which fell to the share of our Battalion.
The War Service of the 1/4 Royal Berkshire Regiment (T. F.) Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser Cruttwell

Their casualties were reported as three killed and twelve wounded.
The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) Various

The total Allied casualties were not as large as the number of Germans taken prisoner.
America’s War for Humanity Thomas Herbert Russell

Yet they were subject to a raking fire that cost them hundreds of casualties.
The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) Various

casualties were not exceptionally heavy, but the strenuous work and perpetual stress of the nerves told on them.
Norman Ten Hundred A. Stanley Blicq

noun (pl) -ties
a serviceman who is killed, wounded, captured, or missing as a result of enemy action
a person who is injured or killed in an accident
a hospital department in which victims of accidents, violence, etc, are treated
anything that is lost, damaged, or destroyed as the result of an accident, etc
n.

early 15c., “chance, accident; incidental charge,” from casual (adj.) on model of royalty, penalty, etc. Casuality had some currency 16c.-17c. but is now obsolete. Meaning “losses in numbers from a military or other troop” is from late 15c. Meaning “an individual killed, wounded, or lost in battle” is from 1844.

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