Hypertext Webster Gateway: "lottery"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Lottery \Lot"ter*y\, n.; pl. {Lotteries}. [Lot + -ery, as in
brewery, bindery.]
1. A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance;
esp., a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing
particular numbers draw prizes, and the rest of tickets
are blanks. Fig. : An affair of chance.
Note: The laws of the United States and of most of the States
make lotteries illegal.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
lottery
n 1: something that is regarded as a chance event; "the election
was just a lottery to them"
2: players buy chances and prizes are distributed according to
the drawing of lots [syn: {drawing}]
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