▪ I. † ˈchevisance1 Obs.
Forms: 4 chevisans, chevicaunce, chewisance, chefesaunce, chyvesaunce, chevyssauns, 4–5 chevissaunce, -ance, 4–6 chevysaunce, -ance, chevesance, -aunce, 4–7, 9 chevisaunce, -ance, 5 (cheysaunce, chevysshaunce), chevesauns, chevyshaunce, -ance, (7 chevisancie).
[a. OF. chevisance, chevissance, f. chevissant, pr. pple. of chevir: see chevise v.]
I. 1. A bringing to an end or issue; issue, end.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 105 Whan Henry herd telle þis of þat gode cheuysance. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lx. 248 (Harl. MS.) Shamide that he ne wiste what chevisaunce he myght make. |
2. Furtherance; help, assistance rendered.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6978 (Gött.) Na folk þaim miht widstand..Quilis þai wid þaim had goddes cheuisans. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4911 Yf a man..Of his gode yeve you a gode substaunce, Kunneth hym thanke of his goode chevysaunce. |
3. Resource, remedy, means of helping or extricating oneself, shift; also, expedient, device, shiftiness.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 181 If þe Soudan ros opon Philip of France, & I wer þan in clos withouten cheuisance. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxiii. 16 Þauh he..can no betere cheuesaunce, Neode nymeþ hym a-non vnder his maynpryse. 1440 Protest Dk. Gloucester in Rymer, Foedera (1710) X. 766 Yf..my said Lord can find noon other meen or chevesaunce to keep ony part. c 1470 Harding Chron. iv. iii, Eche daye they made wyttye cheuesaunce, To helpe them selfe at their necessitee. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon (1885) 104 The foreste is soo grete, that they shall fynde some cheuysaunce. 1530 Palsgr. 267/1 Schyfte, chevesaunce, cheuesance. 1548 Hall Chron. (1809) 406 Hir craftie chevesaunce tooke none effect in Brytayne. 1650 B. Discollim. 39 Violated by Leger du main, or chevisance of wit. |
4. Contribution to the supply of any want; provision; supply.
| 138. Wyclif Wks. (1880) 382 What chefesaunce & costis þe clergi makiþ. 1565 Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 67 There was then neither such number of Altars, nor such cheuisance of Masses, as hath beene sithence. |
5. Provision of what is wanted for life; concr. provisions, substance.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 402 He gat schippyne gud plente, And wictalis in gret aboundance: Sa maid he nobill chewisance. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W., Phillis, Hys wyse folke conseyle han hym yeven..To..make in that londe somme chevissaunce, And kepen hym fro woo. 1436 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 169 Thus moste rude ware be in here chevesaunce. 1602 Carew Cornwall 29 The store-house of Sunnes cheuisance...Oceanus. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcel. xxiii. iii. 221 A strong towne of defence, and for rich chevisance and quicke traffique a most delectable place. 1611 Cotgr., Bien, wealth, substance, chevisance, riches, possessions. |
6. Booty.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1390 Tas yow þere my cheuicaunce, I cheued no more. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 332 As a thefe maketh his chevesance And robbeth mennes goodes about. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 2264 When we with Magnyfycence goodys made chevysaunce. 1530 Tindale Pract. Prelates xii, For him they might not slee whom they wolde, and make what cheuysaunce they lusted. 1658 W. Burton Itin. Anton. 149 [They] carried their pillage..to places of safety..and full of gladnesse for their chevisance, did then come again to fetch more. |
II. spec. The providing or raising of funds:
7. Regarded as the action of the borrower: Raising of money by some expedient, esp. on some surety or pledge; borrowing. to make a chevisance: to contract a loan; to pledge or pawn anything for ready money.
| c 1386 Chaucer Shipman's T. 329 Chaffare is so dere, That nedes must he make a chevisance, For he was bonde in a recognisance, To payen twenty thousand sheldes anon. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 144 For he [Richd. I] purposed to go to the Holy Land, and must make chevesauns for mech money, he sent aftir the Kyng of Scottis. 1461 J. Paston Lett. 410 II. 41, I kowd make non othyr cheysaunce but I schuld a boruyed it of a strange man. 1474 Ibid. 745 III. 115 And as for the forte C. mark..he wolde, rather than joperte sholde be, purvey it by weye off chevyshaunce at London, in so moche that..he had for my sake leyde v.c. markes worthe of plate with Hewghe Fenne. 1530 Tindale Pract. Prelates xiii, The old Pope had none auctoryte to make anye soch cheuisaunce with St. Peters enheritaunce: he coude but haue the vse of it his lyfelonge. |
b. Resource or shift to get money, way of ‘raising the needful’. (Always in a bad sense.)
| a 1400 Cov. Myst. xxv. 243 A beggerys dowtere..To cownterfete a jentylwoman..And yf mony lakke, this is the new chevesauns With here prevy plesawns to gett it of sum man. c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Good Mann. (1570) C iij, If he shame to begge..Then turneth he to fraude and crafty cheuesaunce, Of all men borowing on suertie, othe or seale. 1545 Act 37 Hen. VIII, c. 9 Pream., Punyshment of Usurye..and of other corrupte bargaynes, shiftes and chevisances. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xviii. (Arb.) 53 Pasturage was before tillage, or fishing or fowling, or any other predatory art or cheuisance. |
c. Merchandise, gain (in a bad sense); esp. in to make chevisance of: to make merchandise, profit, or gain of.
| 1535 Coverdale Deut. xxi. 14 Then shalt thou let her go whither she wyll, and not to sell her, nor to make cheuesaunce of her. 1555 Fardle Facions ii. vii. 161 The parentes brought to niedinesse, vse there to make cheuisaunce of their doughters bodies. c 1570 Thynne Pride & Lowl. cccxxix, And to commaund and haue the world at wyll Others for they mak of it chevisaunce. 1616 Bullokar, Cheuisance, merchandise, bargaining. 1623–6 so Cockeram. |
8. Regarded as the action of the lender: The furnishing of funds, money-lending on security. Also, app. The lending of goods, etc., for profit; and sometimes, merely, Dealing for profit.
(Apparently commonly applied in 15–16th c. to some device by which the statutes against usury were evaded.)
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 249 Eschaunges and cheuesaunces With suche chaffare I dele. 138. Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 88 Marchauntis by usure under colour of treuþe þat þei clepyn chevysaunce. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 283 So estately was he of governaunce, With his bargayns, and with his chevysaunce. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. vii. 252 Þat chaffared with my chyuesaunce, cheuede selde after. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 33 Usury and Chevesaunce, incresith the Povertie of hym that borowyth. 1487 Act 3 Hen. VII, c. 6 §3 Ordyned..that all unlefull Chevysaunces and Usurye be dampned, and none to be used, upon payne of forfeyture of the Value of the Money or Goodez so chevysched or lent. 1570 Act 13 Eliz. c. 5 Couenous and fraudulent Feoffements..Conueyances, Bonds..to the overthrow of all true and plain dealing, bargaining and chevisance between man and man. Ibid. c. 7 (Who is a Bankrupt) Any..Person..using the Trade of Merchandize by way of Bargaining, Exchange, Rechange, Bartry, Chevisance or otherwise. 1588 J. Harvey Disc. in Thynne's Animadv. (1865) 146 Pitie, that any such knack of knauerie, or covenous chevisance..should..overthrow..any well governed.. state. 1602 W. Fulbecke 2nd Pt. Parall. 48 It is held to be simonie, and corrupt cheuisance, if any valuable consideration be giuen in such regard pacto, vel facto. [1641 Termes de la Ley 56. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. xxxi.] |
¶ Misused by Spenser and others after him, who have erroneously confounded the word with chevance, chivalry, chevauchee, etc.: Enterprise, performance; chivalrous enterprise or achievement; expedition on horseback; chivalry; prowess, etc.
(Spenser app. misunderstood some passage in Gower or other old writer: modern archaists have in turn misunderstood Spenser.)
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 92 They maken many a wrong cheuisaunce [gloss., Cheuisaunce, sometime of Chaucer vsed for gaine: sometime of other for spoyle, or bootie, or enterprise, and sometime for chiefdome]. 1590 ― F.Q. iii. xi. 24 Shameful thing Yt were t' abandon noble chevisaunce For shewe of perill, without venturing. 1600 Fairfax Tasso iv. lxxxi, Be it not pardie declar'd in France..That we forsooke so faire a cheuisance, For doubt or feare that might from fight arise. 1612 Pasquil's Night Cap (1877) 109 None of more valour, might or cheuisance. 1624 Quarles Div. Poems Sion's Sonn. (1717) 377 Encreas'd in power, and high Chevisance Of Arms. 1849 Lytton K. Arthur viii. xi, Frank were those times of trustful chevisaunce [note, chevisaunce, Spenser], And hearts when guileless open to a glance. Ibid. xii. cxcv, Stand forth..bold child of Christian Chevisaunce. 1882 Shorthouse J. Inglesant xxxii, When the northern gods..rode on their chevisance, they went down into the deep valleys singing magic songs. |
▪ II. ˈchevisance2 Obs.
[prob. the same word as prec.]
An old name of some flower, not identified: Dr. Prior has suggested the Wall-flower.
(The conjecture that this is ‘evidently a misprint for cherisance’, is baseless: there is no such word.)
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Apr. 143 The pretie Pawnce And the Chevisaunce Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice. c 1620 T. Robinson M. Magd. 317 The woody Primrose and the pretty Paunce; The Pinke, y⊇ Daffodill and Cheuisance. |