chancy

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See also: Chancy

English

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Etymology

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From chance +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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chancy (comparative chancier, superlative chanciest)

  1. Uncertain; risky; hazardous.
    • 1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:
      In winter steam contributes a fairly high proportion of its tractive effort, say 15 per cent, to heating the train. Diesels have at the moment separate oil-fired boilers which are somewhat chancy affairs, and only electric locomotives grab unlimited power for heating which does not affect their punctuality.
    • 1984, Ric Ocasek, “You Might Think”, in Heartbeat City[1], performed by The Cars:
      You might think it's foolish
      This chancy rendezvous
      (You might think) You might think I'm crazy
      (All I want) All I want is you
  2. Subject to chance; random.
  3. (dated, colloquial) Lucky; bringing good luck.
    • 1919, Irvin S. Cobb, The Life of the Party, page 49:
      His haggard gaze swept this way and that, seeking possible succour where reason told him there could be no succour; and then as his vision pieced together this outjutting architectural feature and that into a coherent picture of his immediate surroundings he knew where he was. The one bit of chancy luck in a sequence of direful catastrophes had brought him here[Pg 49] to this very spot. Why, this must be West Ninth Street; it had to be, it was—oh joy, it was!.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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