Definition of "random"

Still take advice ; though counsels, when they fly / At random, sometimes hit most happily.

1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides, London: H. G. Clarke and Co., published 1844, page 134

O ! many a shaft, at random sent, / Finds mark the archer little meant !

1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lord of the Isles, page 216

they were messagers vnto kyng Ban & Bors sent from kynge Arthur / therfor said the viij knyghtes ye shalle dye or be prysoners / for we ben knyghtes of kyng Claudas And therwith two of them dressid theire sperys / and Vlfyus and Brastias dressid theire speres and ranne to gyder with grete raundon(please add an English translation of this quotation)

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter X, in Le Morte Darthur, book I

[…] for coragiouſly the two kynges newely foughte with great randon and force, they ſhewed their vigors and ſtrengthes and did ſo nobly that their coũter parties had none aduaũtage.

1548, Edward Hall, “The triumphant reigne of Kyng Henry the VIII”, in The Union of the two noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (Hall’s Chronicle), page 82v

Fortie yards will they shoot levell, or very neare the marke, and 120 is their best at Random.

1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 144

[…] the angle at which the miſſive is to mount by ( if we will have it go to its furtheſt randome ) muſt be the half of a right one […]

1644, Sir Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises, page 125

Utilization of all floor space underneath case racks and randoms is another feature of the modern composing room; […]

1935, Newspaper World, numbers 1930-1955, page 41

Printers' frames and randoms

2002, Republic of Korea, number 2, page 502

Where the Joker preys on our fears of random, irrational acts of terror, Bane has an all-consuming, dictatorial agenda that’s more stable and permanent, a New World Order that’s been planned out with the precision of a military coup.

July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises