hazard

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hazard /ˈhazəd/

▶noun

• 1 a danger or risk.

• 2 a permanent feature of a golf course which presents an obstruction to playing a shot.

• 3 literary chance; probability.

• 4 a gambling game using two dice.

• 5 (in real tennis) each of the winning openings in the court.

• 6 Billiards a stroke with which a ball is pocketed, especially (losing hazard) the pocketing of the cue ball off another ball, or (winning hazard) the pocketing of the object ball.

▶verb

• 1 venture to say: he hazarded a guess.

• 2 risk the loss of.

– origin ME: from OFr. hasard, from Sp. azar, from Arab. az-zahr ‘chance’, from Pers. zār or Turk. zar ‘dice’.