happen on

British

verb

(intr, preposition) to find by chance

I happened upon a five-pound note lying in the street

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Updates to drone tech don’t happen on a timetable of years; in Ukraine, it’s every few weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal

You may still have the occasional meeting that absolutely has to happen on Mondays, but if you can make that the exception rather than the norm, meeting-free Mondays are worth a try.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Scientifically speaking, Duane,” she would say, “all good things happen on a Thursday. It’s just basic physics.”

From Literature

The much anticipated showdown between powerhouses Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon will happen on Tuesday night at Etiwanda in the Southern Section Open Division semifinals.

From Los Angeles Times

Measurements and adjustments happen on nearly the same timescale as the fluctuations themselves, making the system roughly one hundred times faster than previously demonstrated.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023