chance

plural chances · alternative obsolete chaunce

1. countableAn opportunity or possibility.

   There was a fat/slim chance that my letter would arrive in time.

   4 more examples

   We had the chance to meet the president last week: we have a good/strong chance of making / to make a profit.

   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.

   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

   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.

   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

2. uncountableRandom occurrence; luck.

   My whole life seems to be ruled by blind chance.

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: fortune, hap, adventure, accident, casualty, chance-medley, fortune, hap

3. countableThe probability of something happening.

   There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.

   2 more examples

   There is little chance of having the chance to approach such a big celeb.

   Though we carried a radio, the chance of rescue in many areas was slim, and one man could never haul the boat with the other one on board.

   1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 591

4. countablepluraluncountableprobability; possibility.

   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.

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

   Synonyms: eventuality, contingency, contingent, eventuality, possibility, potentiality

5. archaiccountableWhat befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

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

   1795, Robert Southey, The Soldier's Wife

   1 more example

   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.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

   Synonyms: destiny, doom, destin, destiny, doom, fatality, fate, foredoom

alternative obsolete chaunce

1. not comparableHappening by chance, casual.

   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.

   1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

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

   Synonyms: contingent

alternative obsolete chaunce

1. not comparableobsoletePerchance; perhaps.

present singular third person chances · participle present chancing · participle past chanced · past chanced · alternative obsolete chaunce

1. archaicintransitiveTo happen by chance, to occur.

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

   3 more examples

   if a bird's nest chance to be before thee

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

   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.

   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)

   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."

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

2. archaictransitiveTo befall; to happen to.

   […] 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 […]

   1826, William Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent

3. To try or risk.

   Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?

   1 more example

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

   1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes

   Synonyms: test

4. To discover something by chance.

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

   1 more example

   I chanced on this letter.

   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]

   Synonyms: come across

5. BelizeTo rob, cheat or swindle someone.

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

   1 more example

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

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

   Synonyms: deceive

6. NigeriaTo take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.

plural Chances

1. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Adair County, Kentucky, United States.
2. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Somerset County, Maryland, United States.
3. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States.
4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States.
5. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Essex County, Virginia, United States.
6. countableuncountableA male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.
7. countableuncountableA surname.