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6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Random \Ran"dom\ (r[a^]n"d[u^]m), n. [OE. randon, OF. randon
     force, violence, rapidity, [`a] randon, de randon, violently,
     suddenly, rapidly, prob. of German origin; cf. G. rand edge,
     border, OHG. rant shield, edge of a shield, akin to E. rand,
     n. See {Rand}, n.]
     1. Force; violence. [Obs.]


        [1913 Webster]
  
              For courageously the two kings newly fought with
              great random and force.               --E. Hall.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A roving motion; course without definite direction; want
        of direction, rule, or method; hazard; chance; -- commonly
        used in the phrase at random, that is, without a settled
        point of direction; at hazard.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Counsels, when they fly
              At random, sometimes hit most happily. --Herrick.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              O, many a shaft, at random sent,
              Finds mark the archer little meant!   --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Distance to which a missile is cast; range; reach; as, the
        random of a rifle ball. --Sir K. Digby.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Mining) The direction of a rake-vein. --Raymond.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Random \Ran"dom\, a.
     1. Going at random or by chance; done or made at hazard, or
        without settled direction, aim, or purpose; hazarded
        without previous calculation; left to chance; haphazard;
        as, a random guess.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Some random truths he can impart.     --Wordsworth.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              So sharp a spur to the lazy, and so strong a bridle
              to the random.                        --H. Spencer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Statistics) Of, pertaining to, or resulting from a
        process of selection from a starting set of items, in
        which the probability of selecting any one object in the
        starting set is equal to the probability of selecting any
        other.
        [PJC]
  
     3. (Construction) of unequal size or shape; made from
        components of unequal size or shape.
        [PJC]
  
     {at random} in a manner so that all possible results have an
        equal probability of occurrence; for processes, each
        possible result is counted separately although the same
        type of result may occur more than once .
  
     {Random courses} (Masonry), courses of stone of unequal
        thickness.
  
     {Random shot}, a shot not directed or aimed toward any
        particular object, or a shot with the muzzle of the gun
        much elevated.
  
     {Random work} (Masonry), stonework consisting of stones of
        unequal sizes fitted together, but not in courses nor
        always with flat beds.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  random
       adj 1: lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed by
              or depending on chance; "a random choice"; "bombs fell
              at random"; "random movements" [ant: {nonrandom}]
       2: taken haphazardly; "a random choice"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  138 Moby Thesaurus words for "random":
     accidental, adventitious, adventitiously, aimless, aleatoric,
     aleatory, amorphous, any which way, anyhow, anywise, arbitrarily,
     arbitrary, around, at random, blobby, blurred, blurry, broad,
     by chance, capricious, casual, casually, causeless, chance,
     chance-medley, chancy, chaotic, confused, designless, desultory,
     disarticulated, discontinuous, disjunct, disordered, dispersed,
     disproportionate, driftless, dysteleological, erratic, erratically,
     fitful, foggy, formless, fortuitous, fortuitously, frivolous,
     fuzzy, general, gratuitous, haphazard, haphazardly, hazy,
     helter-skelter, hit-or-miss, ill-defined, immethodical, imprecise,
     inaccurate, inchoate, incidental, incidentally, incoherent,
     indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indefinitely, indeterminable,
     indeterminate, indiscriminate, indiscriminately, indistinct,
     inexact, inexplicable, irregular, irregularly, lax, loose,
     meaningless, mindless, misshapen, nonspecific, nonsymmetrical,
     nonsystematic, nonuniform, obscure, occasional, occasionally, odd,
     orderless, planless, potluck, promiscuous, purposeless,
     random shot, randomly, senseless, serendipitous, serendipitously,
     shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, spasmodic, sporadic,
     stochastic, straggling, straggly, stray, sweeping, systemless,
     unaccountable, unarranged, uncalculated, unclassified, unclear,
     undefined, undestined, undetermined, undirected, ungraded,
     unjoined, unmethodical, unmotivated, unordered, unorganized,
     unplain, unplanned, unpremeditated, unpremeditatedly, unsorted,
     unspecific, unspecified, unsymmetrical, unsystematic,
     unsystematically, ununiform, vague, veiled, wandering
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  random adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition);
     weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly." 2. Assorted;
     undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just a bunch of random
     business types." 3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected.
     "He's just a random loser." 4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen;
     not well organized. "The program has a random set of misfeatures."
     "That's a random name for that function." "Well, all the names were
     chosen pretty randomly." 5. In no particular order, though
     deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is
     opened one is chosen randomly." 6. Arbitrary. "It generates a random
     name for the scratch file." 7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and
     for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file
     name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine
     that could easily have been coded using only three registers, but
     redundantly uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so
     that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra
     registers. What {randomness}! 8. n. A random hacker; used particularly
     of high-school students who soak up computer time and generally get in
     the way. 9. n. Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not
     known to the hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2. "I went to the
     talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions". 10.
     n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also {J.
     Random}, {some random X}. 11. [UK] Conversationally, a non sequitur or
     something similarly out-of-the-blue. As in: "Stop being so random!" This
     sense equates to `hatstand', taken from the Viz comic character "Roger
     Irrelevant - He's completely Hatstand."
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  random
       
          1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird.
          "The system's been behaving pretty randomly."
       
          2. Assorted; undistinguished.  "Who was at the conference?"
          "Just a bunch of random business types."
       
          3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected.  "He's
          just a random loser."
       
          4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organised.
          "The program has a random set of misfeatures."  "That's a
          random name for that function."  "Well, all the names were
          chosen pretty randomly."
       
          5. In no particular order, though {deterministic}.  "The I/O
          channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is
          chosen randomly."
       
          6. Arbitrary.  "It generates a random name for the scratch
          file."
       
          7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e. poorly done and for no good
          apparent reason.  For example, a program that handles file
          name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler
          routine that could easily have been coded using only three
          registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with
          non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it
          without first saving four extra registers.  What {randomness}!
       
          8.  A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students
          who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.
       
          9.  Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not
          known to the hacker speaking).  "I went to the talk, but the
          audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions".
       
          10.  (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall.  See
          also {J. Random}, {some random X}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1995-12-05)
       
       

















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