happen to

happen to

1. To be experienced by or befall someone or something. I hope something bad didn't happen to Marie—she's never this late for a meeting. A: "What on earth happened to my book?" B: "Oh, my Great Dane sat on it and bent the cover—sorry."
2. To do something unintentionally; to experience something by chance. I just happened to see your mother today—what a lovely woman! If you happen to see my copy of "The Catcher in the Rye," could you put it aside for me?
See also: happen
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

happen to someone or something

to befall someone or something; to occur to someone or something. What is going to happen to me? Something awful happened to your car.
See also: happen
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a straw will show which way the wind blows
  • (someone or something) promises well
  • all for the best
  • a/the feel of (something)
  • (I) wouldn't (do something) if I were you
  • (have) got something going (with someone)
  • accompanied by
  • accompanied by (someone or something)
  • accompany
  • a crack at (someone or something)
References in classic literature
Upon the whole, the consequences of such a law as this would be directly contrary to those things which good laws ought to establish, and which Socrates endeavoured to establish by his regulations concerning women and children: for we think that friendship is the greatest good which can happen to any city, as nothing so much prevents seditions: and amity in a city is what Socrates commends above all things, which appears to be, as indeed he says, the effect of friendship; as we learn from Aristophanes in the Erotics, who says, that those who love one another from the excess of that passion, desire to breathe the same soul, and from being two to be blended into one: from whence it would necessarily follow, that both or one of them must be destroyed.
Only this, then: whatever may happen to you when I am not here..."
"Glory Happening: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places" reveals that the search for glory will bring freedom and a fresh perspective to whatever season you happen to find yourself in.
And they are violations many think will never happen to us.
Things turn very serious when Rosalind becomes aware of two tragedies that will happen to her sisters.
"It's similar to waiting for a bomb to drop, to see if it's actually going to happen to you.
What will happen to the European Constitution now that French and Dutch voters have rejected it?
T: Suppose that some of the other disciples followed along behind to see what would happen to Stephen.
Did the disciples have any expectation that resurrection was something that might happen to Jesus shortly after he died?
Dallaire takes our fingers and places them in Rwanda's wounds, so that we might know beyond any doubt what did happen, and so we might remember that the Rwanda genocide didn't just happen to Rwandans--it happened to all of us--and it is thus incumbent on us all to prevent it.
I just happen to skate and ride a BMX at the same level.
Over the next few hours I became conscious in a twilight state and grasped the gist of what had happened to me (it's called anaphylactic shock), what was happening to me now (the unidentified, toxic allergen was continuing to attack), and what was likely to happen to me soon (I was expected to die again, this time for keeps).
We really don't know what is going to happen to the audience of potential purchasers of these luxury units.
I was just like, "Oh, that's not my dad." You just don't think it will happen to you.