English

Alternative forms

• chevisaunce (obsolete)

Noun

chevisance ‎(plural chevisances)

1. (obsolete) Help, remedy; a resource or solution.
2. (obsolete) The raising of money; money raised or lent for some purpose.
3. (obsolete) Chivalrous adventure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ix:

     Fortune, the foe of famous cheuisaunce / Seldome (said Guyon) yields to vertue aide, / But in her way throwes mischiefe and mischaunce, / Whereby her course is stopt, and passage staid.

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book IV, lxxxi:

     Ah! be it not pardie declared in France, / Or elsewhere told where court'sy is in prize, // That we forsook so fair a chevisance, / For doubt or fear that might from fight arise.

4. (obsolete) A bargain or contract; an agreement about a matter in dispute, such as a debt; a business compact.
5. (obsolete) An unlawful agreement or contract.

Old French

Noun

chevisance f ‎(oblique plural chevisances, nominative singular chevisance, nominative plural chevisances)

1. sustenance

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (chevisance)