act of God

Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

act of God

n. pl. acts of God

1. A violent or destructive natural event, such as a lightning strike or earthquake.

2. Law An occurrence, such as a natural event, that is beyond human control and whose consequences are therefore not a basis for legal liability.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

act of God

(Law) law a sudden and inevitable occurrence caused by natural forces and not by the agency of man, such as a flood, earthquake, or a similar catastrophe

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

act′ of God′

a sudden action of natural forces that could not have been prevented, as an earthquake or hurricane.

[1855–60]

act of God

A potentially destructive event that happens in nature, such as a flood or earthquake, that cannot be controlled by human action.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

act of God - a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events; "he discovered that his house was not insured against acts of God"

force majeure, inevitable accident, unavoidable casualty, vis major

calamity, catastrophe, tragedy, disaster, cataclysm - an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the earthquake was a disaster"

Translations

стихийное бедствие

act of God

n → calamità f inv naturale

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Tyler's assistant secretary, who had been left at home, assured me that there was no doubt but that the Toreador had sailed as promised, since he knew his employer well enough to be positive that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do.

View in context

We all fought shy of 30d on the east and 175d on the west, and, though we had to skirt them pretty close, nothing but an act of God ever drew one of us across.

View in context

Mohammed Malala while urging those affected by the incident to take it as an act of God advised them to always switch off their electric appliances considering the epileptic nature of the power supply in the country.

25 Shops, Goods Worth Millions Of Naira Destroyed As Fire Guts Gombe Main Market

He now says we have lost all our money as this was an act of God and he had paid hotel and transport costs beforehand.

Was the Beast from the East an 'act of God'? IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Act of God as a Statutory and Contractual Defense 8

SOOTHSAYERS, SAILORS, AND SUPERSTORM SANDY: LESSONS FROM AN ACT OF GOD

A: In order that they be exempted from liability for a breach of an obligation due to an 'act of God,' the following must concur: (a) the cause of the breach of the obligation must be independent of the will of the debtor; (b) the event must be either unforseeable or unavoidable; (c) the event must be such as to render it impossible for the debtor to fulfill his obligation in a normal manner; and (d) the debtor must be free from any participation in, or aggravation of the injury to the creditor.

The day the earth grumbled

During the hearing the HESCO's counsel argued that the incident was an act of God and that the company's officials could not face the criminal litigation.

Court directs to register FIR against HESCO officials

>> Home insurance does not cover the Act of God.

Misconceptions About Home Insurance

As her characters consider the insurance and landlord-tenant issues resulting from a conclusion that the alien growth is an act of God ("When did State Farm become religious?" Vida asks her insurance agent), Ciment orchestrates an increasingly complicated plot with consummate skill.

Act of God

Alaska Integrated Media was not able to successfully argue that the fence around the transmitter of KOAN-AM Anchorage was inaccessible, nor was it able to pin blame for the damage on an act of God.

KOAN heads for the checkbook for fence fine

Financial dictionary: Act of |God AN "act of God" refers to something that was outside your reasonable control, such as a natural disaster.