Word Finder - chances

definition

An opportunity or possibility.

example

We had the chance to meet the president last week.

definition

Random occurrence; luck.

example

Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?

definition

The probability of something happening.

example

There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.

definition

What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

definition

To happen by chance, to occur.

example

It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.

definition

To befall; to happen to.

definition

To try or risk.

example

Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?

definition

To discover something by chance.

example

He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.

definition

(Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone.

example

The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.

He wasn't taking chances she'd survive.

I'm not taking chances that mosquitoes or whatever remain.

The chances he knew her surgeon were negligible.

In the backwoods of Pennsylvania and Virginia there seemed to be better chances for a young adventurer.

The chances are slim it will work.

If you weren't concerned about your own life, you might have thought about your chances of taking someone else with you.

Andre had another idea, one that might increase the chances of success, based on ancient myths from the time-before-time.

And we both know if Shipton is a beater, chances are good she'll just keep on taking it, until he kills her or gets what he wants.

You have had two chances to end my life and didn't.

That opportunity came when Basil died in 1533, leaving as successor a child only three years old, and the chances seemed all on the side of the nobles; but the result belied the current expectations, for the child came to be known in history as Ivan the Terrible, and died half a century later in the full enjoyment of unlimited autocratic power.

One of the functions of this official was to subsidize political pamphleteers, and Mirabeau had hoped to be so employed, but he ruined his chances by a series of writings on financial questions.

In order to discount the chances of failure, Bonaparte warned the three Directors that Augereau was a turbulent politician, not to be trusted overmuch.

As his chances of success became more and more desperate, he ventured on a step whereby he hoped to work potently on the pacific desires of the emperor Francis.

The Swedes joyfully accepted the chances of battle and, advancing with irresistible élan, were, at first, successful on both wings.

These Miocene strata have not been found farther north on the Greenland shore than the region mentioned; but in Lady Franklin Bay, on the Grinnell Land side of Smith Sound, they again appear, so that the chances are they will be found on the opposite coast, though doubtless the great disintegration Greenland has undergone and is undergoing has destroyed many of the softer beds of fossiliferous rocks.

Whilst the chances are in favour of some one homoplastic coincidence or structural agreement occurring between some member or other of a large group a and some member or other of a large group b, the matter is very different 2 a o FIG.

The chances against yet another coincidence are a hundred million to one, and against yet one more " coincidence " they are the square of a hundred million to one.

The theory of probabilities, which Laplace described as common sense expressed in mathematical language, engaged his attention from its importance in physics and astronomy; and he applied his theory, not only to the ordinary problems of chances, but also to the inquiry into the causes of phenomena, vital statistics and future events.

His inexperience in the routine work of government, the utterly unpractical nature of his colleagues, and the turbulence of the Parisian mob, proved fatal to his chances.

The risk of failure in mining enterprises is offset by the chances of more than ordinary profits.

If the workable areas are poor, and appear only at long intervals along the outcrop, the chances of discovering richer areas by a shaft are very small.

It has the disadvantage that the distance from one level to the next cannot usually be more than fifty feet without increasing greatly the chances of injury to the men from falling rock..

For a Prussian official to venture to give uncalled-for advice to his sovereign was a breach of propriety not calculated to increase his chances of favour; but it gave Gentz a conspicuous position in the public eye, which his brilliant talents and literary style enabled him to maintain.

The chances of continued resistance in Ireland, which depended on communication with France, were finally destroyed by the great victory off Cape La Hogue (May 19th, 1692).

It is the man of energy, of some means, of ambition, who takes the chances of success in the new country, leaving the poor, the indolent, the weak and crippled at home.

The election of elderly Grand Masters became prevalent, the turmoil and chances of frequent elections being acceptable to younger members.

Talleyrand refused to clear himself of the charges made against him as his friends (especially Madame de Stael) urged him to do; and the incident probably told against his chances of admission into the Directory, which were discussed in the summer of 1798.

This was partly necessary to meet the uncertain conditions in floating when the distribution of supporting forces was unknown and there were chances of distortion.

In order to avoid it he will endeavour to do without assistance, and seriously prejudice his chances of recovery.

But the journey was abandoned, and after some months Erasmus found that even with occasional chances to read at Groenendael, the life of a court was hardly more favourable to study than that of Steyn.

The Vasa period of Polish history which began with the election of Sigismund, son of John III., king of Sweden, was the Sigis- epoch of last and lost chances.

Such stocks, however, usually fail in time, partly from too close interbreeding, partly from the ordinary chances of mortality, and partly from the cumulative effects of strange conditions.

With the methods of history, these writers were naturally exposed to the risks and chances of error attendant upon those methods.

When John Sobieski died in 1696, Augustus was a candidate for the Polish throne, and in order to further his chances became a Roman Catholic, a step which was strongly resented in Saxony.

Just as in Anglo-Saxon lands a national ideal is gradually materializing in the principle of the equalization of chances for all citizens, so in continental Europe, along with this equalization of chances, has still more rapidly developed the ideal of an equalization of obligations, which in turn leads to the claim for an enlargement of political rights co-extensive with the obligations.

But in the war they threw away their chances.

The death of the prince imperial in 1879 put an end to the serious chances of the Bonapartists, although Rouher sought to secure the recognition of Prince Napoleon, son of the ex-king Jerome, as heir to the imperial honours.

The real effect of sortition was to equalize the chances of rich and poor without civil strife.

As a matter of fact, however, though the armies under Frederick and Joseph were face to face in the field, the affair was settled without actual fighting; Maria Theresa, fearing the chances of another struggle with Prussia, overruled her son at the last moment, and by the treaty of Teschen agreed to be content with the cession of the Quarter of the Inn (Innviertel) and some other districts.

At first the chances of the adoption of such a measure seemed small.

But he has been more generally known by his Doctrine of Chances, or Method of Calculating the Probabilities of Events at Play.

The details of the final and successful plot were uncertain - the martyr Wishart cannot be identified with Wishart the would-be murderer - but with Beaton practically expired the chances of the French and Catholic party in Scotland.

The question of her marriage was all important, and her chances were not improved by the scandal of Chastelard, whether he acted as an emissary of the Huguenots, sent to smirch her character, or merely played the fatuous fool in his own conceit.

The chances of individual stars of the two systems colliding are infinitesimal.

Liszt's masterpiece in orchestral music is the Dante Symphony (1847-1855), the subject of which was particularly well suited to his temperament, and offered good chances for the display of his peculiar powers as a master of instrumental effect.

During the first few months of Nero's reign the chances of such an emancipation seemed remote, for he treated his mother with elaborate respect and consulted her on all affairs of state.

Fighting began along the upper Danube, and when indecision and want of funds had ruined the league's chances of success, Philip returned to Hesse and busied himself with seeking help from foreign powers; while in April 1547 John Frederick was captured at Miihlberg.

It is true that the chances of success for the Central Powers in an international struggle were better in the years 1909 and 1911 than in 1914.

If the rust so covered up has not begun to pit the iron the chances are that it will do no harm; but, if it is already well developed and of some thickness, it will have enough oxidizing agents in its pores to develop more oxide, and to swell up and crack the paint.

At once a large section of Unionists, especially in Unionist Lancashire, became alarmed lest their electoral chances should be jeopardized by the prospect of food taxes imposed without reference to the people.