random
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at random
With no discernable pattern or reasoning. We will choose a raffle winner at random. There are a lot of problems with your paper. To start with, you just seem to move from point to point at random. This guy's breaking into houses completely at random and not taking anything? So then what's his motive?
See also: random
random number
A number selected without any criteria, often by some sort of generator, such as a computer program. Don't worry, we're not choosing the winner ourselves—we'll draw a random number to determine who wins.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
at random
by chance; haphazard. The lottery numbers are chosen at random. As a prank, the children dialed phone numbers at random.
See also: random
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
at random
Without order or fixed purpose, haphazardly, as in Jackson Pollock dropped paints on canvas seemingly at random. Originally this phrase meant "very speedily" and "heedlessly." Shakespeare had the present usage in 1 Henry VI (5:3): "He talks at random; sure the man is mad." [Late 1500s]
See also: random
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
at random
Without a governing design, method, or purpose; unsystematically: chose a card at random from the deck.
See also: random
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.