English

Verb

take a chance

1. (idiomatic) To risk; to try something risky.

   He took a chance by supporting the unknown artist.

   • 2009, August 28, Ewan Murray, I owe my Rangers career to Sir David Murray, says Walter Smith, The Guardian,

     He took a chance on me, gave me an opportunity to get into management, the opportunity I wanted, which could not have been an easy decision to make.

   • 1982, February 19, Harold C. Schonberg, Cuts In Federal Arts Budgets To Hit Small Groups Hardest‎, The New York Times,

     ...say they will tend to play it safe, relying on sure-fire box-office hits and refusing to take a chance on experimental works, which almost are always box-office failures.

   • 1919, John Hugh McQuillen et al., The Dental Cosmos, V.61, page 728

     When we did not use the X-ray, if we broke a piece of root off in extracting a tooth, we took a chance, left it in, and expected it to work out.

Synonyms

• roll the dice, take a flyer, take a gamble, take a risk

Translations