accident of birth

Definitions

1. 1

   A fact, situation, or personal characteristic, which may be desirable or undesirable,…

   A fact, situation, or personal characteristic, which may be desirable or undesirable, resulting from the circumstances into which a person was born, and which is therefore entirely beyond their control.

   • [H]e said to himself that he was a very good-looking man, and could have adorned a much higher sphere in life than that in which the accident of birth had placed him.
   • "You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident of birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."
   • An accident of birth had made him a citizen of the United States—his father having owned a ranch which lay north instead of south of the Rio Grande.

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