(n.) A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance; esp., a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, and the rest of tickets are blanks. Fig. : An affair of chance.
(n.) Allotment; thing allotted.
Example Sentences:
(1) "This will be not only be a postcode lottery, but a States vs Europe lottery and that would be madness."
(2) Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund and countless donations from individuals and groups, this wonderful picture – a masterpiece by any standards – will be enjoyed, free of charge, in the National Portrait Gallery for many generations to come."
(3) Because there is a small number of us, we are able to give a lot of personalised care and attention.” However, she adds: “The placements can be a bit of a lottery.
(4) "We've got two years of funding from the National Lottery, which takes us to next May.
(5) Hume, whose grantmaking credentials include leading a £500m cancer and palliative care grant programme for the Big Lottery Fund, refutes the notion that hospices will lose out.
(6) His company, the People's Lottery, may now pursue legal action to recoup some or all of the £30m it claims it spent on the bid.
(7) And those who have won out in the housing lottery – unless they have no children, no relatives and care for no friends in situations somewhat different from their own – they, too, should still have worries.
(8) Almost a thousand local community health projects have now been funded through The Health Lottery, another of our businesses.
(9) The Cavaliers wanted no part of the draft lottery this year as they hoped to take advantage of an almost historically weak Eastern Conference field and make their first playoff appearance since the LeBron James era.
(10) "Penalties are a lottery, but we should still be disappointed with our execution of them," said Fletcher.
(11) Ustinov was born in Swiss Cottage, London, an almost perfectly spherical 12lb baby and only child, descended as he later said "from generations of rotund men - it was the 214th prize in the lottery of life".
(12) 1984: Virgin Atlantic Airways formed; 1986: Virgin Group floats on stock market (bought back two years later); 1987: Branson crosses Atlantic in balloon; 1998: Branson invests in railways; 1999 he launches Virgin Mobile and is knighted; 2000: he fails to win National Lottery bid Family: Wife Joan, children Holly, 21, and Sam, 16 Hobbies: Ballooning, sailing and the occasional publicity stunt.
(13) That is not a postcode lottery – it is… a postcode democracy."
(14) He said the Arts Council would direct applicants to Lottery funding where appropriate.
(15) "Mr Jacob you have won the Nigerian lottery," says Simon McMahon.
(16) That view about Branson influenced the strange events following the original award of the lottery licence in 2000 to Branson.
(17) Challenged by Camelot in court for her conduct in selecting Branson, the lottery regulator was forced to resign and the competition was re-opened.
(18) 'Penalty shootouts: they're a lottery' Penalty shootouts are actually very little about chance.
(19) In August, after several delays, the commission named the People's Lottery as preferred bidder and excluded Camelot from the running.
(20) "The current postcode lottery is simply not acceptable," Kreft said.
Sweepstake
Definition:
(n.) A winning of all the stakes or prizes.
(n.) A complete removal or carrying away; a clean sweep.
Example Sentences:
(1) The Sun has scrapped a World Cup sweepstake that involved 32 well-known football blogs, after a number of the bloggers criticised the newspaper for not gaining permission to be used in the promotion.
(2) "Will you be keeping a sweepstake count of the Scotland-v-France references that will crop up?"
(3) My auntie Nora combined gambling on the Irish sweepstakes with teaching me my catechism for my first Holy Communion.
(4) It appears that the first major domino might have finally fallen in the NBA’s free-agency sweepstakes.
(5) 10.18am GMT 90min: If you had two minutes of extra time in the office sweepstake you just won the prize.
(6) He went on to establish Guess2Give as an online fundraising platform whose users set up sweepstakes to fundraise.
(7) Debate over the sweepstake has been raging on the Pitch Invasion website , which has provided a list of the blogs it believes did not give permission to the Sun.
(8) Jeter asks: “Why doesn’t he just shut up?” Rodriguez helped create a new phrase in Mets lore – “24 plus one” – which was the verbiage used by then Mets GM Steve Phillips to describe why the team had opted out of the Rodriguez free-agent sweepstakes in 2000.
(9) The online sweepstake, which aimed to promote the Sun's iPhone app, was meant to be a "bit of friendly competition between the best football blogs during the World Cup".
(10) (Full disclosure: I plumped for +0.2% in the office sweepstake).
(11) Bloggers were sent an email saying their sites were to be used in the sweepstake and would receive lots of traffic through the association.
(12) Guess2Give.com Founder Mark Chandler previously worked at a large cancer charity and came up with the ideas for Guess2Give when he ran a successful fundraising sweepstake on his triathlon time, rather than just asking for sponsorship.
(13) Having secured an urgent question on the matter, Yvette Cooper bounced to her feet with all the confidence of someone who had just drawn Brazil in the shadow cabinet World Cup sweepstake.
(14) 17 min: "I am torn, as I have a Kiwi girlfriend, but also Paraguay in the office sweepstake," writes Michael Hunt (yes, Mike Hunt, tee-hee, no need to email in about it).
(15) Until recently the smart money was on a contraction (the sweepstake in our office runs from 0 down to -0.5%) but there was talk yesterday that it could be positive.
(16) "I do, however, have France in the sweepstake at work," he writes, "so I got myself into the spirit of things today by having some brie and grapes at lunch time.
(17) The £18 in the Guardian and Observer Sport sweepstake has been split by Observer production editor Philip Cornwall and Big Website Big Cheese James Dart, who scored nine points each.
(18) As ever, tickets to attend the gigs are being distributed via a mixture of an online sweepstake and competitions run by media partners, from newspapers and radio stations to Twitter and Shazam.
(19) But I have to say, the current shadow chancellor has outperformed him in the fiscal incontinence sweepstakes.
(20) Express newspapers chief Richard Desmond has been urged to increase the amount of cash his new "health lottery", launched on Tuesday, will raise for good causes after the sweepstake was branded a "disgraceful development" by a leading charity figure.