Chance definition

Chance





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11 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chance \Chance\ (ch[.a]ns), n. [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL.
     cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L.
     cadere to fall; akin to Skr. [,c]ad to fall, L. cedere to
     yield, E. cede. Cf. {Cadence}.]
     1. A supposed material or psychical agent or mode of activity
        other than a force, law, or purpose; fortune; fate; -- in


        this sense often personified.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It is strictly and philosophically true in nature
              and reason that there is no such thing as chance or
              accident; it being evident that these words do not
              signify anything really existing, anything that is
              truly an agent or the cause of any event; but they
              signify merely men's ignorance of the real and
              immediate cause.                      --Samuel
                                                    Clark.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Many of the everyday events which people observe and
           attribute to chance fall into the category described by
           Clark, as being in practice too complex for people to
           easily predict, but in theory predictable if one were
           to know the actions of the causal agents in great
           detail. At the subatomic level, however, there is much
           evidence to support the notion derived from
           Heisenberg's uncertaintly principle, that phenomena
           occur in nature which are truly randomly determined,
           not merely too complex to predict or observe
           accurately. Such phenomena, however, are observed only
           with one or a very small number of subatomic particles.
           When the probabilities of observed events are
           determined by the behavior of aggregates of millions of
           particles, the variations due to such quantum
           indeterminacy becomes so small as to be unobservable
           even over billions of repetitions, and may therefore be
           ignored in practical situations; such variations are so
           improbable that it would be irrational to condition
           anything of consequence upon the occurrence of such an
           improbable event. A clever experimenter, nevertheless,
           may contrive a system where a very visible event (such
           as the dynamiting of a building) depends on the
           occurrence of a truly chance subatomic event (such as
           the disintegration of a single radioactive nucleus). In
           such a contrived situation, one may accurately speak of
           an event determined by chance, in the sense of a random
           occurrence completely unpredictable, at least as to
           time.
           [PJC]
  
                 Any society into which chance might throw him.
                                                    --Macaulay.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 That power
                 Which erring men call Chance.      --Milton.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The operation or activity of such agent.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              By chance a priest came down that way. --Luke x. 31.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The supposed effect of such an agent; something that
        befalls, as the result of unknown or unconsidered forces;
        the issue of uncertain conditions; an event not calculated
        upon; an unexpected occurrence; a happening; accident;
        fortuity; casualty.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In the field of observation, chance favors only the
              mind that is prepared.                --Louis
                                                    Pasteur.
        [PJC]
  
     Note: This quotation is usually found in the form "Chance
           favors the prepared mind." It is a common rejoinder to
           the assertion that a scientist was "lucky" to have made
           some particular discovery because of unanticipated
           factors. A related quotation, from the
           Nobel-Prize-winning chemist R. B. Woodward, is that "A
           scientist has to work wery hard to get to the point
           where he can be lucky."
           [PJC]
  
                 It was a chance that happened to us. --1 Sam. vi.
                                                    9.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts,
                 And wins (O shameful chance!) the Queen of
                 Hearts.                            --Pope.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 I spake of most disastrous chance. --Shak.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A possibility; a likelihood; an opportunity; -- with
        reference to a doubtful result; as, a chance to escape; a
        chance for life; the chances are all against him.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune.
              That I would get my life on any chance,
              To mend it, or be rid on 't           --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Math.) Probability.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The mathematical expression, of a chance is the ratio
           of frequency with which an event happens in the long
           run. If an event may happen in a ways and may fail in b
           ways, and each of these a + b ways is equally likely,
           the chance, or probability, that the event will happen
           is measured by the fraction a/a + b, and the chance, or
           probability, that it will fail is measured by b/a + b.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Chance comer}, one who comes unexpectedly.
  
     {The last chance}, the sole remaining ground of hope.
  
     {The main chance}, the chief opportunity; that upon which
        reliance is had, esp. self-interest.
  
     {Theory of chances}, {Doctrine of chances} (Math.), that
        branch of mathematics which treats of the probability of
        the occurrence of particular events, as the fall of dice
        in given positions.
  
     {To mind one's chances}, to take advantage of every
        circumstance; to seize every opportunity.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chance \Chance\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Chanced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Chancing}.]
     To happen, come, or arrive, without design or expectation.
     "Things that chance daily." --Robynson (More's Utopia).
     [1913 Webster]
  
           If a bird's nest chance to be before thee. --Deut.
                                                    xxii. 6.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           I chanced on this letter.                --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Often used impersonally; as, how chances it?
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 How chance, thou art returned so soon? --Shak.
           [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chance \Chance\, v. t.
     1. To take the chances of; to venture upon; -- usually with
        it as object.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Come what will, I will chance it.     --W. D.
                                                    Howells.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To befall; to happen to. [Obs.] --W. Lambarde.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chance \Chance\, a.
     Happening by chance; casual.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chance \Chance\, adv.
     By chance; perchance. --Gray.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  chance
       adj : occurring or appearing or singled out by chance; "their
             accidental meeting led to a renewal of their
             friendship"; "seek help from casual passers-by"; "a
             casual meeting"; "a chance occurrence" [syn: {accidental},
              {casual}, {chance(a)}]
       n 1: a possibility due to a favorable combination of
            circumstances; "the holiday gave us the opportunity to
            visit Washington"; "now is your chance" [syn: {opportunity}]
       2: an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event
          to result one way rather than another; "bad luck caused
          his downfall"; "we ran into each other by pure chance"
          [syn: {luck}, {fortune}, {hazard}]
       3: a risk involving danger; "you take a chance when you let her
          drive"
       4: a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur;
          "what is the probability of rain?"; "we have a good chance
          of winning" [syn: {probability}]
       v 1: be the case by chance; "I chanced to meet my old friend in
            the street"
       2: take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome; "When you
          buy these stocks you are gambling" [syn: {gamble}, {risk},
           {hazard}, {take chances}, {adventure}, {run a risk}, {take
          a chance}]
       3: come upon, as if by accident; meet with; "We find this idea
          in Plato"; "I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not
          very far from here"; "She chanced upon an interesting book
          in the bookstore the other day" [syn: {find}, {happen}, {bump},
           {encounter}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  302 Moby Thesaurus words for "chance":
     a leg up, accidental, accidentally, advantage, adventitious,
     adventure, aleatoric, aleatory, amorphous, appear, approach,
     aptitude, aptness, arise, assay, attempt, bare possibility,
     bechance, befall, bet, betide, blind bargain, blobby, blurred,
     blurry, borderline case, bout, brave, break, broad, bump,
     by chance, calculated risk, capriciousness, careless, casual,
     causeless, certainty, chance it, chances, chanciness, chancy,
     changeableness, chaotic, clear stage, come, come about, come along,
     come forth, come into being, come into existence, come on,
     come to pass, conceivability, conceivableness, conceivably,
     confused, contingency, contingent, court destruction, crop up,
     dare, defy danger, destinal, dicey, disordered, double contingency,
     draw on, endanger, engage, erraticism, erraticness, essay,
     even chance, eventuality, expectation, face up to,
     fair expectation, fair field, fair game, fall out, fatal, fate,
     fatidic, favorable prospect, fickleness, flier, fluke, fluky,
     foggy, forget the odds, fortuitous, fortuity, fortune, fuzzy,
     gamble, gamble on, general, go, good chance, good possibility,
     guess, hap, happen, happen along, happen by chance, hazard, hazy,
     heedless, hesitancy, hesitation, hit, hit-or-miss, hope, iffy,
     ill-defined, imperil, imprecise, inaccurate, inadvertent,
     inadvertently, incalculability, incertitude, inchoate, incidental,
     incoherent, indecision, indecisive, indecisiveness, indefinable,
     indefinite, indemonstrability, indeterminable, indeterminacy,
     indeterminate, indetermination, indeterminism, indistinct, inexact,
     inning, innings, irresolution, jeopardize, lax, liability,
     liableness, liberty, lift a finger, light, likelihood, likeliness,
     look-in, loose, lot, luck, make an attempt, make an effort,
     materialize, maybe, meet, nonspecific, obligation, obscure,
     occasion, occur, odd, odds, off chance, offer, open question,
     opening, opportunism, opportunity, orderless, outlook,
     outside chance, outside hope, perhaps, piece of guesswork, place,
     play, play with fire, plunge, pop up, possibility, possibleness,
     possibly, potential, potentiality, predictability, present itself,
     presumption, presumptive evidence, probabilism, probability,
     proneness, prospect, question, random, randomness,
     reasonable ground, reasonable hope, relief, rely on fortune,
     remote possibility, risk, risky, room, round, run a chance,
     run the chance, run the risk, say, scope, set at hazard,
     shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, shot, show, show up,
     sight-unseen transaction, small hope, speculation, spell,
     spring up, squeak, stake, stepping-stone, stochastic, stumble,
     suspense, suspensefulness, sweeping, take a chance, take a flier,
     take chances, take place, tempt Providence, tempt fortune,
     tendency, the attainable, the feasible, the possible, thinkability,
     thinkableness, time, time at bat, toss-up, touch and go, transpire,
     trust to chance, try, try the chance, tumble, turn, turn up,
     unaccountability, uncaused, uncertainness, uncertainty,
     uncertainty principle, unclear, undecided issue, undecidedness,
     undefined, undertake, undestined, undetermined, undeterminedness,
     unexpected, unforeseeable, unforeseeableness, unforeseen,
     unintentional, unintentionally, unlooked-for, unplain, unplanned,
     unpredictability, unpredictable, unpremeditated, unprovability,
     unspecified, unsureness, unverifiability, vacillation, vague,
     veiled, venture, venture on, venture upon, verisimilitude,
     virtuality, wager, weakness, well-grounded hope, whack,
     what is possible, what may be, what might be, whimsicality
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Chance
     (Luke 10:31). "It was not by chance that the priest came down by
     that road at that time, but by a specific arrangement and in
     exact fulfilment of a plan; not the plan of the priest, nor the
     plan of the wounded traveller, but the plan of God. By
     coincidence (Gr. sungkuria) the priest came down, that is, by
     the conjunction of two things, in fact, which were previously
     constituted a pair in the providence of God. In the result they
     fell together according to the omniscient Designer's plan. This
     is the true theory of the divine government." Compare the
     meeting of Philip with the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26, 27). There is
     no "chance" in God's empire. "Chance" is only another word for
     our want of knowledge as to the way in which one event falls in
     with another (1 Sam. 6:9; Eccl. 9:11).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CHANCE, accident. As the law punishes a crime only when there is an 
  intention to commit it, it follows that when those acts are done in a lawful 
  business or pursuit by mere chance or accident, which would have been 
  criminal if there had been an intention, express or implied, to commit them, 
  there is no crime. For example, if workmen were employed in blasting rocks 
  in a retired field, and a person not knowing of the circumstance should 
  enter the field, and be killed by a piece of the rock, there would be no 
  guilt in the workmen. 1 East, P. C. 262 Poster, 262; 1 Hale's P. C. 472; 4 
  Bl. Com. 192. Vide Accident. 
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Chance, MD
    Zip code(s): 21816
  Chance, VA
    Zip code(s): 22439

From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:

  Chance, MD -- U.S. Census Designated Place in Maryland
     Population (2000):    377
     Housing Units (2000): 254
     Land area (2000):     1.728426 sq. miles (4.476603 sq. km)
     Water area (2000):    0.839181 sq. miles (2.173468 sq. km)
     Total area (2000):    2.567607 sq. miles (6.650071 sq. km)
     FIPS code:            15075
     Located within:       Maryland (MD), FIPS 24
     Location:             38.176818 N, 75.939272 W
     ZIP Codes (1990):     21816
     Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
     Headwords:
      Chance, MD
      Chance
  

















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