Noun

(vagaries)

An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.

* 1871 , , At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies , ch. 8:

It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.

An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

* 1905 , , War of the Classes , Preface:

And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

Noun

(en-noun)

(uncountable) The state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity.

* {{quote-book, year=1858

, year_published=2008 , publisher=Read Books , author= , title= , section=Chapter III citation , isbn=9781443734035 , page=55 , passage=The doctor loved the squire, loved him as his oldest friend; but he loved him ten times better as being in adversity than he could ever have done had things gone well at Greshansbury in his time.}}

* {{quote-book, year=2007

, publisher=PublishAmerica , author=Earl Crouch , title=Do You Know? , chapter=When Adversity Strikes citation , isbn=9781424173914 , page=60 , passage=God approves all adversity'. Not all '''adversity''' that the Christian encounters is due to sins in the Christian's life. Not all ' adversity is the fault of the Christian.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1998

, publisher=Naval Institute Press , editor=Karel Montor , author=Karel Montor, et al , title=Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience , edition=2nd edition , chapter=Directing and Coordinating Operations , section=Efficient and Professional Conduct citation , isbn=9781557505965 , page=278 , passage=These are the people who will overcome the adversity , chaos, and destruction of combat and defeat the enemy in war.}}

(countable) An event that is adverse; calamity.

* {{quote-magazine, year=1859

, author= , coauthors= , title=The Great Earl of Cork , date=September 1859 , volume=LIV , issue= , page=326 , magazine=The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal , publisher=Alex Thom & Sons citation , passage=Having “secret notice,” the writer of “True Remembrances” declares of the above complains, he retired into Munster, intending to proceed to England, to justify himself; but was detained there for want of money by the breaking out of rebellion. This adversity befell him in the autumn of 1598. }}

* {{quote-book, year=1977

, year_published=1979 , publisher=Routledge , author=Genevieve Burton , title=Interpersonal Relations: A Guide for Nurses , edition=Fourth edition , chapter=Family Adversity and the Nurse citation , isbn=9780422769907 , page=101 , passage=Every family is struck by adversity' at one time or another. No matter how mature the patients are, regardless of the care an advantages they give their children, despite a desirable interactive love between family members, ' adversity will attack any family}}

* {{quote-book, year=2006

, year_published=2007 , publisher=Plume , author=Elizabeth Wissner-Gross , title=What Colleges Don't Tell You (and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know: 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid Into the Top Schools , chapter=Getting Your Kid off the Waiting List and into the School of His or Her Dreams citation , isbn=9780452288546 , page=272 , passage=Make sure that your child’s adversity' is ''really'' an '''adversity'''. Not having parents who can buy a new car upon your son’s sixteenth birthday is not an '''adversity'''. Being the only girl on the block who doesn’t own a designed handbag is not an ' adversity }}