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Murphy's law

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Murphy's law

  (humorous)

the way in which plans always fail and bad things always happen where there is any possibility of them doing so I'm a great believer in Murphy's law - what can go wrong will go wrong.

See also: law

Murphy's law

If anything can go wrong, it will, as in We may think we've covered all the details for the benefit, but remember Murphy's law . The identity of Murphy, if ever a real person, is unknown. Some think it alludes to (but was not invented by) a feckless Irishman named Murphy. [c. 1940]

See also: law