collateral damage
noun/kəˌlætərəl ˈdæmɪdʒ/
/kəˌlætərəl ˈdæmɪdʒ/
[uncountable]- deaths of or injury to civilians (= people not in the armed forces) or damage to buildings that are not connected to the military during a war. People say ‘collateral damage’ to avoid saying ‘innocent people being killed’.
- The government denied that there had been any collateral damage during the bombing raid.
- Collateral damage caused by the drone attacks was high.
- They were rightly concerned about civilian collateral damage.
- (figurative) As forests are cleared for logging, woodland caribou become collateral damage (= the animals die even though they are not deliberately killed).
Check pronunciation:
collateral damage