dumb luck
8
3.9
- noun
- Informal
:
suerte tonta
- He found a $100 bill on the ground; it was simply dumb luck.
- just dumb luck
- pure dumb luck
- plain dumb luck
So it was a complete stroke of dumb luck there.
- So it was a complete stroke of dumb luck there.
- You know, what happens to a country that was made super rich by dumb luck?
- Somehow, through like dumb luck, this company starts to like crypto.
- And so he said the first type of luck is dumb luck.
- And so whether they had gotten used to our pattern activity and what we were doing to engage them or it was just pure dumb luck.
- I will tell you that right now, now, if people don't know me, everybody goes to it's dumb luck, divine Providence.
Examples
-
Maybe it's just dumb luck.
Blog text (14) -
There was dumb luck involved there, too.
Blog text (4) -
Or worse, someone would probably find him through dumb luck.
Fiction book (1995) -
So it's all just dumb luck.
Fiction book (1997) -
The fact that we even survived this is just dumb luck.
-
Oh, just my dumb luck, I'm afraid.
-
I'm more of a dumb luck kind of gal.
-
I've never had dumb luck like that.
-
It was just... it was just dumb luck.
-
It was just dumb luck.
Synonyms
547
1.0
A fortunate event that happens by chance
66
2.5
A lucky event or success that happens by chance
15
7.9
A happy chance event that brings good results
13
3.2
A sudden chance that helps you succeed
8
3.2
A sudden lucky event that brings good results
1
9.5
An extra helpful thing you get, often at work
An unexpected good thing that happens by chance
A lucky unexpected event that brings something good
Very good luck that happens by chance and seems undeserved
How Lucky
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'luck' clearly signals chance or fortune and 'dumb' conveys lack of ability or agency, so a learner can partly infer that the phrase refers to success not due to skill. However, 'dumb' does not literally mean 'by chance' and the colloquial positive sense ('good fortune') rather than a negative assessment is not fully predictable, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Dumb luck may come from the older use of dumb to mean 'not smart', so it creates the image of luck that happens without thinking or skill. So dumb luck means 'good luck that happens by chance rather than because someone worked for it'.