chevisance

plural chevisances · alternative chevisaunce

1. countableobsoleteuncountableProvision(s), supply.

   The store-house of Sunnes cheuisance... Oceanus.

   1602, Carew, Cornwall, page 29

   2 more examples

   There was then neither such number of Altars, nor such chueisance of Masses, as hath beene sithence.

   1565, Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), page 67

   A strong towne of defence, and for rich chevisance and quicke traffique a most delectable place.

   1609, Amm. Marcel., Holland, xxiii, iii, page 221

2. countableobsoleteuncountableBooty.

   make what cheuysaunce they lusted.

   1530, Tindale, Pract. Prelates, xii

   2 more examples

   When we with Magnyfycence goodys made chevysaunce.

   1526, Skelton, Magnyf., page 2264

   […] carried their pillage […] to places of safety […] and full of gladnesse for their chevisance, did then come again to fetch more.

   1658, W. Burton, Itin. Anton., page 149

3. countableobsoleteuncountableRemedy, resource, expedient, means of helping oneself.

   Violated by Leger du main, or chevisance of wit.

   1650, B., Discollim., page 39

   1 more example

   Hir craftie chevesaunce tooke none effect in Brytayne

   1548, Chron, Hall, published 1809, page 406

4. countablederogatoryobsoleteuncountableThe raising of money (by a borrower, by some expedient).

   […] or any other predatory art or cheuisance.

   1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie I, xviii, 53

   2 more examples

   If he shame to begge […] Then turneth he to fraude and crafty cheuesaunce, Of all men borowing on suertie, othe or seale.

   1510, Barclay, Mirr. Good Mann. (1570), C, iiij

   Punyshment of Usurye […] shiftes and chevisances.

   1545, Act 37 Hen. VIII, c. 9

5. countablederogatoryobsoleteoftenuncountableThe furnishing of money (by a lender) for profit.

   Pitie, that any such knack of kanuerie, or covenous chevisance [...] should [...] overthrow [... a] state.

   1588, J. Harvey, Disc. in Thynne's Animadv., published 1865, page 146

   2 more examples

   Couenous and fraudulent Feoffements […] to the overthrow of all true and plain dealing, bargaining and chevisance between man and man.

   1570, Act 13 Eliz., c. 5

   It is held to be simonie, and corrupt cheuisance, if any valuance consideration be giuen in such regard […]

   1602, Fulbecke, Second Part: Parall, page 48

6. countableobsoleteuncountableA contract or agreement (about a matter in dispute, such as a debt); in particular, an unlawful contract intended to evade laws against usury.

   [Discussing events from June 1421.] […] committed to prison till he satisfied the commonalty for £17 10s which he did not deny having obtained from the said Guy by false chevisance, together with the sum of £53 8d, being double the amount of gain he had made from the other persons.

   1961, Philip E. Jones, Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls, CUP Archive, page 102

   1 more example

   Since, however, the form of such a canonical sale on credit was often or even mostly employed as a cover for loans with a mark-up, all chevisance came to be seen as deceitful, thus making the adjective “false” redundant. In any case it seems that the ecclesiastical courts in England did not prosecute chevisance, but only usury on the basis of mutuum type loans, which[…]

   2023 November 6, Gijs Kruijtzer, Justifying Transgression, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, →ISBN

7. countableobsoleteuncountableChivalrous adventure.

   Ah! be it not pardie declared in France, / Or elsewhere told where court'sy is in prize, // That we forsook so fair a chevisance, / For doubt or fear that might from fight arise.

   1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book IV, lxxxi

   1 more example

   Fortune, the foe of famous cheuisaunce / Seldome (said Guyon) yields to vertue aide, / But in her way throwes mischiefe and mischaunce, / Whereby her course is stopt, and passage staid.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC