▪ I. mischance, n.
(mɪsˈtʃɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: see chance n.; also 5 miscaunce, -chanche, meshaunce.
[a. OF. mesch(e)ance, -aunce, also meschanche, mescance:—L. type *minuscadentiam: see mis-2 and chance n.]
1. Ill-luck, ill-success. In early use often with stronger sense, disaster, calamity.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2902 Ouer homber he fley anon to wite him fram meschance. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ix. 51 God saue þe from mischaunce, And ȝiue þe grace uppon grounde. c 1475 Partenay 5642 Anon it happned to hym gret miscaunce. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. i. 89 Lords view these Letters, full of bad mischance. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 181 They..let downe with Cords..seuerall Messengers (that if one came to mischance, another might passe on). 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. iv. (1869) 83 We are the sport of imbecility and mischance. 1833 Tennyson Lady of Shalott iv. ii, Beholding all his own mischance, Mute, with glassy countenance. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. ii. iii. (1866) 191 If mischance should follow the neglect of this warning. |
| personified. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1151 Amiddes of the temple sat meschaunce, With disconfort and sory contenaunce. 1742 Gray Spring 38 Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance. |
2. In particularized use: A piece of bad luck, a mishap, an unlucky accident; † spec. an accidental injury or mutilation. In early use also, † a state of unhappiness, an evil fate.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1182 In takinning als o þi penance þe sal be send a lang meschance. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 229 Mynne ȝe nat, riche men to which a meschaunce Þat dives deyed? a 1450 Myric 1899 Fowrty dayes for þat myschawnce Þow schalt be in penaunce. 1577 in Ellis Orig. Lett. ser. ii. III. 56 Upon Monday here fell a mischaunce betwene two of my Lo. Chamberleyns men, and the on of them was killed in Powles churche yarde. 1587 Golding De Mornay i. (1617) 7 When a man loseth an eye, an arme, or a legge, we do commonly say, it is a mischance. 1685 Wood Life 23 July (O.H.S.) III. 155 He had got a mischance by gunpowder. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 55 ¶7, I had secured it [sc. a book] against mischances by lodging two transcripts in different places. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiv, First the right sandal came down, and then the left, and these mischances being repaired [etc.]. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 145 The vicissitudes and mischances of sublunary affairs. |
3. Phrases. † a. to fare, go to mischance; to cast, chase, drive, put to mischance. to give (a person) mischance: to bring bad luck to, to overwhelm with disaster. to bid (a person) mischance: to wish him bad luck.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 7282 Þey cald hym traitour wyþ manace, & to meschaunce þey scholde hym chace. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 222 Lat us daunce, And cast your widwes habit to mischaunce. Ibid. v. 359 Thy swevenes..Dryf out, and lat hem faren to mischaunce. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 325 And blame men bihynde her bakke and bydden hem meschaunce. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 333 Enuye I preie to god ȝeue hire myschaunce. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 142 What with swerd and with launce Many oon he gafe myschaunce. c 1460 G. Ashby Dicta Philos. 47 Otherwise your werkys gone to mischanche. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 282 How he had put his pepill to myschance. |
† b. In exclamations and imprecations, esp. in with mischance! = deuce take it! Also How mischance..? How the devil..? Obs.
| 13.. Guy Warw. 2533, & ȝif ich Gij mete may, Wiþ meschaunce y schal him gret. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 1362, Or how mischaunce sholde I dwelle there? c 1386 ― Manciple's Prol. 11 Is that a cook of Londoun, with meschaunce? c 1386 ― Man of Law's T. 816 The lordes styward—god yeve him meschaunce! c 1400 Rom. Rose 7581 What? welcome with mischaunce now! 1402 Jack Upland in Chaucerian Pieces (Skeat) 203 Than so shulde they be better than Christ himselfe, with miscaunce! c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 34 She..hir husband disceyvethe, allas! meschaunce! 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 502 God gyue you a very myschaunce! |
c. by mischance: by an unlucky accident.
AF. par mescheaunce (Britton) = ‘by misadventure’.
| 1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 6 If it shall happen any of the said mares by mischaunce or casualte for to die. 1625 Milton Death Infant 44 Wert thou some Starr which from the ruin'd roofe Of shak't Olympus by mischance didst fall? 1662 J. Graunt Bills Mort. viii. 48 Slain in Wars, killed by mischance, drowned at Sea. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xliv, When they met by mischance, he made sarcastic bows or remarks to the child. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 112 And these awoke him, and by great mischance He heard but fragments of her later words. |
d. Proverbs.
| 14.. Hermes Bird lxii. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. (1652) 225 A Chyldys Byrde, and a Chorlys Wyfe, Hath ofte sythys sorow and mischaunce. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Malheur, Mischances neuer come single. |
▪ II. misˈchance, v. Obs. or arch.
[mis-1 1.]
1. intr. To happen unfortunately. Also with dat. of person.
| 1552 Huloet, Mischauncen, male euenire. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 40 Beliueing no falshoode to mischance him efterwart in respect of his hartlie messaige that come to him fre the maistratis. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 64 And still I hoped to be up advaunced,..but still it hath mischaunced. 1809 E. S. Barrett Setting Sun I. 68 It so mischanc'd, A horde barbarian,..Landing, spread death wherever they advanc'd. |
2. pass. To be unfortunate; to have bad luck.
| a 1542 Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 36 Stephan said true, that my natiuitie Mischanced was with the ruler of May. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1728) 11 He burnt the more for anger within himself, that he was so mischanced in this behalf. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxxix. viii, All that him hate, be me shall be mischaunced. |
3. intr. To have the ill-luck to do so-and-so.
| 1600 Fairfax Tasso xix. xcviii, On an ambush I mischanst to light Of cruell men. |
Hence misˈchancing vbl. n. rare.
| 1611 Florio, Misueniménto,..a mischancing. 1929 W. Faulkner Sartoris v. 357 A period of history which had seen brothers and husband slain in the same useless mischancing of human affairs. |