collateral damage
40
5.6
- noun
- /kəˈlætərəl ˈdæmɪdʒ/
:
daños colaterales
- Military strikes often result in collateral damage, affecting civilians living nearby.
- cause collateral damage
- minimize collateral damage
- collateral damage to civilians
Don't worry about the collateral damage of the world we're leaving behind.
- Don't worry about the collateral damage of the world we're leaving behind.
- One of the big talking points is collateral damage from Israel's campaign in Gaza.
- So there becomes this race, you know, to develop that capability and there's collateral damage in doing something like that.
- If we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.
- Sadly, the ones footing the bill are the innocent civilians who are blithely dismissed as collateral damage.
- Am I simply the collateral damage on their path until my heart or frustration makes me impossible to ignore?
- Narcissus are not aware of the collateral damage that they're causing and the self destruction that they cause, nor do they care.
- No, in fact, from what I can remember, the collateral damage, it was never mentioned, never not even thought of.
Examples
-
Collateral damage in modern warfare, too, can be minimized by more clear-cut regulations.
Academic text (2011) -
Precision firepower is essential to prevent excessive collateral damage, but employing it in densely packed urban environments risks considerable unintended results.
Academic text (2005) -
But there would be a lot of collateral damage as well.
-
We wish to avoid collateral damage.
-
And collateral damage is just the price of power.
-
But there was also what might be called collateral damage.
Academic text (2003) -
The trouble with air wars, among other things, is they generally increase collateral damage.
Blog text (14) -
We do everything we can to minimize collateral damage.
-
One of the big talking points is collateral damage from Israel's campaign in Gaza.
-
The US government continuing drone strikes without regard to 'collateral damage' is equally serious.
Blog text (9)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Harm that makes something less useful, valuable, or healthy
1
3.5
Harm to the body that happens by accident and not on purpose
Antonyms
How Harmful
90
4.8
849
3.0
40
5.6
885
1.4
∞
1.4
- Specialized
80
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'unintended harm' is directly and predictably composed from 'collateral' (incidental, supplemental) + 'damage' (harm or injury). This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase used widely (e.g., Spanish 'daños colaterales'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Collateral damage comes from military talk, where collateral meant things next to the main target and damage meant harm. Imagine a bomb hitting a building and also hurting people or houses beside it — that side harm is called 'collateral damage', so today the phrase means 'unintended harm' to people or things that were 'not the main target'.