chancy

adjective

\ˈchan(t)-sē

chancier; chanciest

Definition of chancy

1 Scottish : bringing good luck : auspicious

2 : uncertain in outcome or prospect : risky

3 : occurring by chance : haphazard

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Examples of chancy in a Sentence

Building your own home is a chancy business. Opening a new restaurant can be chancy.

Recent Examples on the Web

Lifelong recommendations based on studies of roughly 50 patients and for no longer than three months seem a bit chancy. — WSJ, "Are Eggs Bad for You? Two Scientists Square Off," 13 Sep. 2018 The early concerts have had a biting, chancy energy. — New York Times, "13 Pop, Rock and Jazz Concerts to Check Out in N.Y.C. This Weekend," 21 June 2018 In a curious twist, Gunderson takes the story in an extremely chancy direction during the show’s final minutes. — David Lyman, Cincinnati.com, "Review: Ada and the Engine inspiring, absorbing and heartbreaking," 14 Apr. 2018 George Washington's chancy nighttime retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan was a kind of Colonial-era Dunkirk. — Benedict Cosgrove, Smithsonian, "The Grisly History of Brooklyn’s Revolutionary War Martyrs," 13 Mar. 2017 In the 4500 block of Connecticut Avenue NW, Jeff Lucas watched a driver plow through the brown and turbulent waters in what had momentarily seemed to be a chancy undertaking. — Martin Weil, Washington Post, "Rain, falling as fast as two inches an hour, creates ‘small rivers’ in D.C. region," 18 Aug. 2017 The point is that reporting on alleged facts that won’t take place for a decade or more in the future is chancy at best. — Ed Wallace, star-telegram, "Evolution of an auto news story," 14 July 2017 Steve Jobs was making what was at the time an extraordinarily chancy wager. — Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY, "What the first iPhone tells us about tech's future," 23 June 2017 Over a driving funk vamp, he and Ronald Bruner work as a percussive unit; each note has heft and precision, but a chancy momentum too. — Giovanni Russonello, New York Times, "Los Angeles’s Thriving Jazz Scene Produces Four New Albums," 10 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'chancy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.