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on the off chance

 - 4 dictionary results

chance

  [chans, chahns] noun, verb, chanced, chanc⋅ing, adjective
Use on the off chance in a Sentence
–noun
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.
–verb (used without object)
11. to happen or occur by chance: It chanced that our arrivals coincided.
–verb (used with object)
12. to take the chances or risks of; risk (often fol. by impersonal it): I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.
–adjective
13. not planned or expected; accidental: a chance occurrence.
—Verb phrase
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.
—Idioms
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.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < OF chance, cheance < VL *cadentia a befalling, happening; see cadenza

Related forms:
chanceless, adjective

Synonyms:
2. accident, fortuity. 3. contingency. 4. opening. 11. befall. See happen. 13. casual, fortuitous.

Antonyms:
1. necessity.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To on the off chance
chance   (chāns)   
n.  

    1. The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause.

    2. A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck: Chance will determine the outcome.

  2. The likelihood of something happening; possibility or probability. Often used in the plural: 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.

adj.  Caused by or ascribable to chance; unexpected, random, or casual: a chance encounter; a chance result.
v.   chanced, chanc·ing, chanc·es

v.   intr.
To come about by chance; occur: It chanced that the train was late that day.
v.   tr.
To take the risk or hazard of: not willing to chance it.
Phrasal Verb(s):
chance on/uponTo find or meet accidentally; happen upon: While in Paris we chanced on two old friends.

Idiom(s):
by chance

  1. Without plan; accidentally: They met by chance on a plane.

  2. Possibly; perchance: Is he, by chance, her brother?


Idiom(s):
on the off chanceIn 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; see kad- in Indo-European roots.]
Synonyms: These adjectives apply to what is determined not by deliberation but by accident. Chance stresses lack of premeditation: a chance meeting with a friend.
Random implies the absence of a specific pattern or objective: took a random guess.
Casual often suggests an absence of due concern: a casual observation.
Haphazard implies a carelessness or a willful leaving to chance: a haphazard plan of action.
Desultory suggests a shifting about from one thing to another that reflects a lack of method: a desultory conversation. See Also Synonyms at happen, opportunity.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

chance 
1297, from O.Fr. cheance "accident, the falling of dice," from V.L. cadentia "that which falls out," from L. cadentem (nom. cadens), prp. of cadere "to fall" (see case (1)). Notions of "opportunity" and "randomness" are equally old in Eng. The verb meaning "to risk" is from 1859. Chancy was originally (1513) "lucky;" sense of "risky, untrustworthy" is first recorded 1860.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

on the off chance

see under on the chance that.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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