Word.ws English Dictionary

accidents will happen in the best regulated families

accidents will happen in the best regulated families proverb: accidents will always happen, even where there is an expectation of success.

Proverb

accidents will happen in the best regulated families

  1. Accidents will always happen, even where there is an expectation of success.
    • In spite of all precautions, accidents will happen in the best regulated families, and wolves steal in, in the fleeces of Merinos.1837 June, “Spanish Theatre”, in The London Quarterly Review, number 117, page 50
    • “Why, for my own part, I never like to alarm people—I hate that; but, when accidents will happen in the best regulated families, why not in this very irregular?”1842, Life in the West: Back-wood Leaves and Prairie Flowers, Saunders and Otley (publ.), page 65.

Examples of accidents will happen in the best regulated families in a sentence

  • With home and family defined as the private sphere, its members were reminded that Accidents will happen in the best regulated families and they should not wash dirty linen in public.1987, Cambridge University, The Social History of Language, page 54:
  • Occasionally there is a hiatus; for instance, our sweet potatoes, turnips and cabbages arrived late this morning but "accidents will happen in the best regulated families.1995, Louis P. Masur, The Real War Will Never Get in the Books: Selections from Writers During the Civil War, pages 88–89:

Origin of accidents will happen in the best regulated families

First attested in the early 19th century. Popularised by Charles Dickens' novel The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850).

Questions about accidents will happen in the best regulated families

What does accidents will happen in the best regulated families mean?
Accidents will happen in the best regulated families means accidents will always happen, even where there is an expectation of success.
How do you use accidents will happen in the best regulated families in a sentence?
With home and family defined as the private sphere, its members were reminded that Accidents will happen in the best regulated families and they should not wash dirty linen in public.
What part of speech is accidents will happen in the best regulated families?
Accidents will happen in the best regulated families is a proverb.

Words near accidents will happen in the best regulated families in the dictionary

  1. accidentology
  2. accidents
  3. accidents of birth
  4. accidents waiting to happen
  5. accidents will happen
  6. accidents will happen in the best regulated families
  7. accidia
  8. accidie
  9. accidious
  10. accinge
  11. accinged

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: accidents will happen in the best regulated families (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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