chance

Noun

chance (countable and uncountable, plural chances)

1. (countable) An opportunity or possibility.

   We had the chance to meet the president last week.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.

   • 1965 March 15, Lyndon B. Johnson, 42:30 from the start, in Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise [on the Voting Rights Act], 3/15/65. MP506.‎, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum‎:

     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.

2. (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck.

   Synonyms: fortune, hap; see also Thesaurus:luck

   Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?

3. (countable) The probability of something happening.

   There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.

4. (in plural as chances) probability; possibility.

   Synonyms: eventuality; see also Thesaurus:possibility

   • 1908, Ernest Young, “Chapter 4 The children”, in Peeps at Many Lands: Siam, London: Adam and Charles Black, page 16:

     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.

5. (countable, archaic) What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

   Synonyms: destiny, doom; see also Thesaurus:fate

   • 1795, Robert Southey, The Soldier's Wife‎:

     Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!

Adjective

chance (not comparable)

1. Happening by chance, casual.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter II, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     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.

Adverb

chance (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Perchance; perhaps.

Verb

chance (third-person singular simple present chances, present participle chancing, simple past and past participle chanced)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To happen by chance, to occur.

   It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 22:6:

     if a bird's nest chance to be before thee

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XV, Practical — Devotional”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     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.

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XVIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

     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."

2. (archaic, transitive) To befall; to happen to.
   • 1826, William Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent:

     […] 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 […]

3. To try or risk.

   Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?

   • 1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes:

     He does chance it in stocks, but he's always played on the square, if you call stocks gambling.

4. To discover something by chance.

   He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     I chanced on this letter.

5. (Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone.

   The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.

   • 2017 March 22, Jules Vasquez, “Shyne Urges Artists To Protest Against Businesses Countrywide”, in 7 News Belize‎:

     Be prepared to engage in protests of all businesses nationwide who are violating the copyright act and chancing our members.

6. (Nigeria) To take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.

Antonyms

• risiko

Derived terms

• chanciox

Antonyms

• adversité
• guigne (familiar)
• malchance
• malheur

Derived terms

Related terms

• choir

Descendants