1. betide. Happen, chance, occur refer to the taking place of an event. Happen, which originally denoted the taking place by hap or chance, is now the most general word for coming to pass: Something has happened. Chance suggests the accidental nature of an event: It chanced to rain that day. Occur is often interchangeable with happen, but is more formal, and is usually more specific as to time and event: His death occurred the following year.
Examples from the web for happening
Think happening restaurants, a new contemporary art museum, and an architecturally forward-thinking bridge.
What had seemed a melancholy happening, now seemed a tiresome anticlimax.
It is the similarity between the performed action and the expected happening.
Sometimes she was angry about some happening at the banker's house and scolded away for hours.
He had his own object-he simply wanted to find out at once what was happening here.
Something was happening to him entirely new, sudden and unknown.
His timing was unfortunate, for something started happening around then which made nonsense of his ideas.
They can fly unaided to the target area and monitor much of what is happening on the ground without help from their controllers.
In some areas where change might be expected, however, nothing much seems to be happening.
What economists mean by real inflation is, of course, a wage-price spiral and that is not happening.
British Dictionary definitions for happening
happening
/ˈhæpənɪŋ; ˈhæpnɪŋ/
noun
1.
an occurrence; event
2.
an improvised or spontaneous display or performance consisting of bizarre and haphazard events
adjective
3.
(informal) fashionable and up-to-the-minute
happen
/ˈhæpən/
verb
1.
(intransitive) (of an event in time) to come about or take place; occur
2.
(intransitive) foll by to. (of some unforeseen circumstance or event, esp death), to fall to the lot (of); be a source of good or bad fortune (to): if anything happens to me, it'll be your fault
3.
(transitive) to chance (to be or do something): I happen to know him
4.
(transitive; takes a clause as object) to be the case, esp if by chance, that: it happens that I know him
mid-15c., "chance, luck," from present participle of happen; meaning "occurrence" is 1550s. Sense of "spontaneous event or display" is from 1959 in the argot of artists. Happenings "events" was noted by Fowler as a vogue word from c.1905.
happen
v.
c.1300, "to come to pass, occur," originally "occur by hap, to have the (good or bad) fortune (to do, be, etc.);" see hap (n.). Replaced Old English gelimpan, gesceon, and Middle English befall. In Middle English fel it hap meant "it happened." Related: Happened; happening.
Slang definitions & phrases for happening
happening
adjective
Up-to-date and desirable; chic; cool, hip, with it: That dress is definitely happening; you look great/ This music is happening
Lively; vibrant: It's a way happening town
noun
An event: the concert was a happening(1980s+ Students)