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

chance \chance\ ch.ans, n. f. chance, of. cheance, fr. ll.
   cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice, fr. l.
   cadere to fall; akin to skr. ,cad 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
see also:
cadence chance comer the last chance the main chance theory of chances doctrine of chances 
to mind one's chances 

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

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
see also:
chanced chancing 

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

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

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

chance \chance\, a.
   happening by chance; casual.
   1913 webster

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

chance \chance\, adv.
   by chance; perchance. --gray.
   1913 webster

[6] : WordNet (r) 2.0

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, chancea
     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
see also:
accidental casual chancea opportunity luck fortune 
hazard probability gamble risk take chances 
adventure run a risk take a chance find happen 
bump encounter 

[7] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

[8] : Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

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.
   

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

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. 

[10] : U.S. Gazetteer (1990)

chance, md
  zip codes: 21816
chance, va
  zip codes: 22439

[11] : U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000)

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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