Murphy's law
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Murphy's Law
Alternative forms
Etymology
Named after Edward A. Murphy Jr. (1918–1990), a development engineer who worked for a brief time on the rocket-sled experiments of the United States Air Force in 1948.
Proper noun
- An adage which states that if anything can go wrong, then it will.
- Synonyms: Sod's law, Finagle's law
- 1953, Anne Roe, The Making of a Scientist, page 214:
- I ran into the perfect exemplification of “Murphy's law” at one university, where everything that could go wrong did!
- 2014, Muriel Spark, The Golden Fleece, Carcanet, →ISBN:
- ‘It was an application of Murphy's Law,’ said one Vatican dignitary in a resigned voice. What was Murphy's Law? ‘Murphy's Law,’ said the dignitary, ‘is that everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong.’
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
adage which states that if anything can go wrong it will
|
Further reading
Murphy's law on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
