[chans, chahns] 
noun, verb, chanced, chanc⋅ing, adjective | 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. | to happen or occur by chance: It chanced that our arrivals coincided. |
| 12. | to take the chances or risks of; risk (often fol. by impersonal it): I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome. |
| 13. | not planned or expected; accidental: a chance occurrence. |
| 14. | 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. |
| 15. | by chance, without plan or intent; accidentally: I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris. |
| 16. | on the chance, in the mild hope or against the possibility: I'll wait on the chance that she'll come. |
| 17. | on the off chance, in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility. |
