chance
chance
(chăns) noun
1.
a. The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause. b. A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck: Chance will determine the outcome.
2. Often chances The likelihood of something happening; possibility or probability: Chances are good that you will win. Is there any chance of rain?
3. An accidental or unpredictable event.
4. A favorable set of circumstances; an opportunity: a chance to escape.
5. A risk or hazard; a gamble: took a chance that the ice would hold me.
6. Games. A raffle or lottery ticket.
7. Baseball. An opportunity to make a putout or an assist that counts as an error if unsuccessful.
adjective
Caused by or ascribable to chance; unexpected, random, or casual: a chance encounter; a chance result.
verb
chanced, chancing, chances
verb
, intransitive
To come about by chance; occur: It chanced that the train was late that day.
verb
, transitive
To take the risk or hazard of: not willing to chance it.
phrasal verb.
chance on or upon)
To find or meet accidentally; happen upon: While in Paris we chanced on two old friends.
idiom.
by chance
1.
Without plan; accidentally: They met by chance on a plane.
2.
Possibly; perchance: Is he, by chance, her brother?
on the off chance
In the slight hope or possibility.
[Middle English, unexpected event, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia, from Latin cadēns, cadent- present participle of cadere, to fall, befall.]
Synonyms:
chance, random, casual, haphazard, desultory. These adjectives apply to what is determined not by deliberation or method but by accident. Chance stresses lack of premeditation: a chance meeting with a friend. Random implies the absence of a specific pattern or objective and suggests a lack of direction that might or could profitably be imposed: struck by a random shot; took a random guess. Casual stresses lack of deliberation and often suggests an absence of due concern: made a casual observation. Haphazard implies a carelessness or a willful leaving to chance: offered a haphazard plan of action. Desultory suggests a shifting about from one thing to another that reflects a lack of method: engaged in a desultory conversation. See also synonyms at happen, opportunity.