chance
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
chance/tʃɑːns/
▶noun
- 1 a possibility of something happening.
- 2 (chances) the probability of something desirable happening.
- 3 an opportunity.
- 4 the occurrence of events in the absence of any obvious intention or cause: he met his brother by chance.
- 1 do something by accident.
■ (chance upon/on/across) find or see by accident.
- 2 informal risk doing (something).
– phrases
by any chance possibly.
chance one's arm (or luck) Brit. informal risk doing something.
on the (off) chance just in case.
stand a chance [usu. with neg.] have a prospect of success or survival.
take a chance (or chances) expose oneself to the risk of danger or failure.
by any chance possibly.
chance one's arm (or luck) Brit. informal risk doing something.
on the (off) chance just in case.
stand a chance [usu. with neg.] have a prospect of success or survival.
take a chance (or chances) expose oneself to the risk of danger or failure.
■ (take a chance on) risk trusting.
take one's chance do something risky with the hope of success.– origin ME: from OFr. cheance, from cheoir ‘fall, befall’, based on L. cadere.
'chance' also found in these Oxford entries:
accident
- adventitious
- aleatory
- alight
- auspicious
- aventurine
- begin
- break
- Buckley's
- bump
- cadence
- capitalize
- casual
- casualty
- cat
- centimorgan
- chance-medley
- collocation
- come
- contention
- contingent
- crack
- dice
- dog
- down
- earthly
- even
- even money
- faint
- fall
- fat
- fighting chance
- find
- fluke
- fortuitous
- fortune
- gamble
- game
- get
- half
- hap
- happen
- hazard
- hell
- hit
- hope
- incidental
- keno
- kin selection
