chancy

See also: Chancy

English

Etymology

From chance +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ænsi

Adjective

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

• (risky): dicey, iffy

Translations

uncertain

• Bulgarian: несигурен (bg) (nesiguren), рискован (bg) (riskovan)
• Czech: nejistý, riskantní (cs)
• French: hasardeux (fr)
• Spanish: incierto (es), arriesgado (es)

subject to chance

• French: aléatoire (fr)
• Spanish: aleatorio (es)