chance &c 156; lot, fate &c (necessity) 601; luck; good luck &c (good)
618; mascot.
speculation, venture, stake, game of chance; mere shot, random
shot; blind bargain, leap in the dark; pig in a poke &c (uncertainty)
475; fluke, potluck; faro bank; flyer [Slang]; limit.
uncertainty; uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle.
drawing lots; sortilegy†, sortition†; sortes†, sortes Virgilianae†;
rouge et noir [Fr.], hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo [U.S.],
craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing,
heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice; wager; bet, betting;
gambling; the turf.
gaming house, gambling house, betting house; bucket shop; gambling
joint; totalizator, totalizer; hell; betting ring; dice, dice box.
[person who takes chances] gambler, gamester; man of the turf;
adventurer; dicer†.
V. chance &c (hap) 156; stand a chance &c (be possible) 470.
toss up; cast lots, draw lots; leave to chance, trust to chance,
leave to the chapter of accidents, trust to the chapter of accidents;
tempt fortune; chance it, take one's chance, take a shot at it
(attempt) 675; run the risk, run the chance, incur the risk, incur the
chance, encounter the risk, encounter the chance; stand the hazard of
the die.
speculate, try one's luck, set on a cast, raffle, put into a
lottery, buy a pig in a poke, shuffle the cards.
risk, venture, hazard, stake; ante; lay, lay a wager; make a bet,
wager, bet, gamble, game, play for; play at chuck farthing.
Adj. fortuitous &c 156; unintentional, unintended; accidental; not
meant; undesigned, purposed; unpremeditated &c 612; unforeseen,
uncontemplated, never thought of.
random, indiscriminate, promiscuous; undirected; aimless,
driftless†, designless†, purposeless, causeless; without purpose.
possible &c 470.
unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey.
Adv. randomly, by chance, fortuitously; unpredictably, unforeseeably;
casually &c 156; unintentionally &c adj.; unwittingly.
en passant [Fr.], by the way, incidentally; as it may happen; at
random, at a venture, at haphazard.
Phr. acierta errando [Lat.]; dextro tempore [Lat.]; fearful
concatenation of circumstances [D.
Webster]; fortuitous combination of circumstances [Dickens]; le
jeu est le fils d'avarice et le pere du desespoir [Fr.]; the happy
combination of fortuitous circumstances [Scott]; the fortuitous or
casual concourse of atoms [Bentley]; God does not play dice with the
universe [A.
Einstein].