casualty
part of speech
noun (a casualty, casualties; Casualty = the hospital department in the UK)
meaning for a pupil
1) A casualty is a person who is hurt or killed in an accident, war or disaster. tree →
2) (UK) Casualty is the hospital department for emergencies, also called A&E (accident and emergency); in the USA it is the ER. tree →
3) A casualty is something that is lost or harmed because of an event: «The old tree was a casualty of the storm». tree →
sense in the lessons
In first aid lessons the injured person is called the casualty, and pupils learn to check the casualty is breathing and call for help. In news and history, casualties are counted after battles and disasters. In everyday talk «we went to casualty» means to hospital emergency. Phrases: take to casualty, casualty department, heavy casualties.
examples
- The first aider put the casualty in the recovery position. tree →
- There were no casualties in the fire. tree →
- We spent four hours in casualty after Sam broke his arm. tree →
- The battle caused heavy casualties. tree →
- The garden fence was a casualty of the storm. tree →
- Stay with the casualty until help arrives. tree →
note
Plural «casualties». Casualties in war usually means people killed and wounded together. It has nothing to do with «casual» (relaxed), though the words are related. In maths problems, «casualties» counts all hurt and killed.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «casualty» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.