act of God

Definitions

1. 1

   An unforeseen occurrence beyond one's control, such as a natural disaster.

   • They didn't get shot to death in hold-ups, strangled to death in rapes, stabbed to death in saloons, bludgeoned to death with axes by parents or children or die summarily by some other act of God.
   • The action of “The Discovery of Heaven” combines the emotional melodrama of a telenovela with a sequence of events that an insurance lawyer would call acts of God.
   • Infrastructure failures tend to be treated like acts of God, but of course they aren't really.
2. 2

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see act, of, God.

3. 3

   Alternative letter-case form of act of God.

   • Heavy rainfall is not the kind of exceptional phenomenon to which the Act of God exception applies.
   • In road and rail traffic liability is excluded for accidents which are due to circumstances amounting to an Act of God.

The neighborhood