chance
Part of speech: noun
adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadere (“to fall, to die, to happen, occur”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.
Inflected forms:
form: chances
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: chaunce
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: chaunce
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: chances
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: chancing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: chanced
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: chanced
pos: verb
tags: past
form: chaunce
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: An opportunity or possibility.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: We had the chance to meet the president last week: we have a good/strong chance of making / to make a profit.
There was a fat/slim chance that my letter would arrive in time.
If you get the chance, try and catch the new production of "Hamlet."
Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country.
But now I do have that chance, and I'll let you in on a secret: I mean to use it.
gloss: Random occurrence; luck.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?
My whole life seems to be ruled by blind chance.
gloss: The probability of something happening.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.
There is little chance of having the chance to approach such a big celeb.
gloss: probability; possibility.
pos: noun
tags: countable
plural
uncountable
examples: Sometimes the name is changed because it is thought to be unlucky. If "Chua" is ill, the chances are that there are certain spirits who do not like his name, so the parents alter his name to "Mee," or something else, and then he gets well again.
gloss: What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
examples: But at the moment when everything was going so well, there came one of those unforeseeable chances that reduce even the most circumspectly arranged plots to the significance of a mere toss-up.
Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!
gloss: Happening by chance, casual.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: No crowd was about the door; no people were discernible at any of the many windows; not even a chance passer-by was in the street. An unnatural silence and desertion reigned there.
Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.
gloss: To happen by chance, to occur.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.
if a bird's nest chance to be before thee
Once […] it chanced that Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely, a Prelate rather troublesome to our Abbot, made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford.
Mr. Mason, shivering as some one chanced to open the door, asked for more coal to be put on the fire, which had burnt out its flame, though its mass of cinder still shone hot and red. The footman who brought the coal, in going out, stopped near Mr. Eshton's chair, and said something to him in a low voice, of which I heard only the words, "old woman,"—"quite troublesome."
gloss: To befall; to happen to.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: […] while the King and Godwine sate at the table, accompanied with others of the nobilitie, it chanced the cupbearer (as he brought wine to the bourd) to slip with the one foote, and yet by good strength of his other leg, to recover himselfe without falling […]
gloss: To try or risk.
pos: verb
examples: Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?
He does chance it in stocks, but he's always played on the square, if you call stocks gambling.
gloss: To discover something by chance.
pos: verb
examples: He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.
I chanced on this letter.
gloss: To rob, cheat or swindle someone.
pos: verb
tags: Belize
examples: The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.
Be prepared to engage in protests of all businesses nationwide who are violating the copyright act and chancing our members.
gloss: To take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.
pos: verb
tags: Nigeria
Synonyms: come to pass
occur
transpire
come on
come upon
encounter
stumble upon
fool
trick
Derived words: bechance
blow one's chance
Buckley's chance
by any chance
by chance
cat in hell's chance
cat's chance in hell
chanceable
chance acquaintance
chance card
chance'd be a fine thing
chance fracture
chanceful
chanceless
chancely
chance-medley
chance passenger
chancer
chances are
chance the ducks
chancewise
chance would be a fine thing
chancy
Chinaman's chance
Chinaman's chance in hell
Come By Chance
dog's chance
even chance
fair chance
fat chance
fighting chance
first-chance exception
game of chance
give chance to
half a chance
half-chance
happenchance
happy chance
in with a chance
jump at the chance
jump on the chance
last chance
last chance saloon
leave to chance
main chance
mum chance
no chance
not a chance
off chance
off-chance
on the off chance
outside chance
overchance
perchance
second chance
shutter chance
slim chance
smart chance
snowball's chance
snowball's chance in an oven
snowball's chance in heck
snowball's chance in hell
snowflake's chance in hell
sporting chance
stand a chance
take a chance
take one's chance
unchance
wanchance
chance on
chance one's arm
chance upon
unchanced
Translations: