hapchance

plural hapchances · alternative hap-chance

1. literaryrareuncountableChance, luck, fortune; the random or unplanned quality of an event. (frequently in by hapchance)

   A little brush, two horses meeting by hapchance, was one thing, but a downright, bald-faced[…]

   1969, Jessamyn West, Except for Me and Thee, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World

   5 more examples

   For the next few minutes he rather neglected the game, the countess absorbing his entire regard. For, by hapchance, the 25 won for her; and, as she took the thirty-five sovereigns, the woman's color deepened, her lips parted, her eyes glowed, and for the moment she looked radiantly happy.

   1905, Louis Joseph Vance, Terence O'Rourke, Gentleman Adventurer, New York

   Duncan and Betty took an hour off at the bank the following morning, and the pair of them, after wandering with evident aimlessness round the town, drifted as it were on the tide of hap-chance into Graham's drug-store.

   1910, Louis Joseph Vance, The Fortune Hunter, novelized from the play by Winchell Smith, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company

   Under the cover of darkness queer things happen in strange corners and some of them come to light. Here are two incidents that by hapchance are revealed[…]

   1913 November 17, “Darkness Hides Some Queer Things”, in The Lake County Times, Hammond, Ind., page 1

   It could not actually be called a conversation, for he spoke in monologue, usually at some length, and more as though by hapchance and at random.

   1926, O. G. Sonneck, editor, Beethoven: Impressions by his Contemporaries, New York: G. Schirmer, page 160

   There's no rules, in spite of what I said. It's all hapchance, and I think God Himself keeps pretty clear[…]

   1975, Jessamyn West, The Massacre at Fall Creek, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

   Synonyms: chance, hap, happenchance, happenstance, luck

2. countableliteraryrareA chance occurrence; an accident, a coincidence.

   […]a shrewd job, made to look exactly like an evil hapchance of the woods.

   1954, William Byron Mowery, Tales of the Ozarks, New York: Bouregy & Curl

   2 more examples

   […]and yet content to dote upon a line, or the hapchance of a sounding word.

   1953, Richard Llewellyn, A Flame for Doubting Thomas, New York: Macmillan

   These were satisfactions. The hapchances of the radio studios were calling on[…]

   1974, Andrew Allan, Andrew Allan: A Self-Portrait, Toronto: Macmillan of Canada

   Synonyms: fluke, happenchance, happenstance

alternative hap-chance

1. literarynot comparablerareHappening or met with by chance; chance, casual, random, haphazard.

   […]as they used to do in those days, a wide and hapchance assortment[…]

   1956, Oliver La Farge, Behind the Mountains, Boston: Houghton Mifflin

   4 more examples

   He was close upon the farther end when—upon a hapchance impulse—he glanced over the nearest guard-rail, down at the bed of the creek.

   1907, Louis Joseph Vance, The Brass Bowl, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

   Whether he is right or wrong in his generalization, he has prepared a serious indictment against the hapchance druggists who make up his prescriptions.

   1924 July 30, Herbert Corey, “Manhattan Days and Nights”, in Evening Star, Washington, D.C.

   […]had set down on them in lead-pencil yard-long calculations, hapchance musical ideas, in short a veritable miscellany, so that these thin lindenwood boards formed a sort of diary.

   1926, O. G. Sonneck, editor, Beethoven: Impressions by his Contemporaries, New York: G. Schirmer, page 207

   […]half the pleasure of travelling is in the hapchance overnights along the road, contacts and[…]

   1937, Oliver La Farge, The Enemy Gods, Boston: Houghton Mifflin

   Synonyms: adventitious, casual, chance, fortuitous, haphazard, random

alternative hap-chance

1. literarynot comparablerareBy chance; at random; haphazardly.

   […]nor was it usually left to huntsmen pulled hapchance from the forest.

   1988, Patricia Wright, I Am England, London: Corgi

   3 more examples

   As it happened, the thing worked with disconcerting abruptness as his untrained fingers fell hapchance on the spring.

   1908, Louis Joseph Vance, The Black Bag, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

   […]are yet not at the same time of so vigorous and lofty an intellect as to live orderly, with calmness and constancy, but are carried hapchance by mere buoyancy of spirits and are deserted by everything like stability.

   1927, C. Spearman, The Abilities of Man: Their Nature and Measurement, New York, London: Macmillan, page 60

   […]relying on the law of averages to hapchance try a spot where a willing animal would be[…]

   1976, Russell Tinsley, All About Small-Game Hunting in America, New York: Winchester Press

   Synonyms: by chance, haphazardly, haply, perchance