Dictionary
chance
Pronunciation: (chans, chäns), [key]
—n., v., chanced, chanc•ing,
—adj.
—
n.
1. the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency:
Chance governs all.
2. luck or fortune:
a game of chance.
3. a possibility or probability of anything happening:
a fifty-percent chance of success.
4. an opportune or favorable time; opportunity:
Now is your chance.
5. Baseball.an opportunity to field the ball and make a put-out or assist.
6. a risk or hazard:
Take a chance.
7. a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing:
The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.
8. chances,probability:
The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.
9. Midland and Southern U.S.a quantity or number (usually fol. by
of).
10. Archaic.an unfortunate event; mishap.
11. by chance, without plan or intent; accidentally:
I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.
12. on the chance, in the mild hope or against the possibility:
I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.
13. on the off chance, in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility.
—
v.i.
to happen or occur by chance:
It chanced that our arrivals coincided.
—
v.t.
1. to take the chances or risks of; risk (often fol. by impersonal
it):
I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.
2. chance on or upon, to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly:
She chanced on a rare kind of mushroom during her walk through the woods.
—
adj.
not planned or expected; accidental:
a chance occurrence. Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
