collateral damage

noun

: injury inflicted on something other than an intended target

specifically : civilian casualties of a military operation

Examples of collateral damage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The report said the school was the intended point of impact, and the resulting damage wasn't the result of an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a compound of Iran's Revolutionary Guard next to the school. — Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 18 Sep. 2026

What’s at issue is collateral damage, a term that came into use during the Vietnam War to obscure, through abstraction, that masses of civilians were being systematically blown to pieces. — Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026

The memo says nothing about what happens when private corporations cause collateral damage to those third parties, or who will be responsible for it. — Jill Goldenziel, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2026

Soon, her relationship with her daughter’s father, boxer Wladimir Klitschko, became collateral damage to her struggles. — Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 18 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for collateral damage

• ramage
• samaj