hazard

noun

• 1a danger or risk:the hazards of childbirth
• a potential source of danger:a fire hazard a health hazard
• a permanent feature of a golf course which presents an obstruction to playing a shot, such as a bunker or stream.

• 2 [mass noun] literary chance; probability:we can form no calculation concerning the laws of hazard

• 3 [mass noun] a gambling game using two dice, in which the chances are complicated by arbitrary rules.

• 4(in real tennis) each of the winning openings in the court.

• 5 Billiards a stroke with which a ball is pocketed.
• (losing hazard) the pocketing of the cue ball off another ball.
• (winning hazard) the pocketing of the object ball.

verb

• 1say (something) in a tentative way:he hazarded a guess

• 2put (something) at risk of being lost:the cargo business is too risky to hazard money on