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Take a chance   /teɪk ə tʃæns/   Listen
Take a chance

verb
1.
Take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome.  Synonyms: adventure, chance, gamble, hazard, risk, run a risk, take chances.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Take a chance" Quotes from Famous Books



... was careless or crazy, working so close to their ranch houses. Nobody that had any sense would take a chance like that," replied Boston, adept at sleight-of-hand with cards and very much in demand when a frame-up was to be rung in on some unsuspecting stranger. His one great fault in the eyes of his partners was that he hated to divvy his winnings ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various

... to the Euclataws, Doris," he said at last. "I love you. I want you. I need you. Do you feel as if you liked me—enough to take a chance? ...
— The Hidden Places • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... yard. I fancy we all had visions of what would happen if a bomb hit the near-by gasoline reserve. Men ran across the yard to the shelter of the dormitories; some, caught as we were in the open, preferred to take a chance on dropping flat under a car. A whistling scream, a kind of shrill, increasing shriek, sounded in the air and ended in a crash. Smoke rolled up heavily in another direction. Another whistle, another crash, another and another and another. The last building struck ...
— A Volunteer Poilu • Henry Sheahan

... Should he take a chance—reveal himself to Tommy and ask him to keep quiet? No. This wasn't a game. One man was already dead. He didn't want Tommy to ...
— The Colors of Space • Marion Zimmer Bradley

... "I've been had too often. You're a good smooth talker and you may be all right, but I can't take a chance ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... could not remember. Whether it was evidence for or against I could not be sure. So I took it off and began to fan myself with it, hoping to get a look at the name of the maker. But with the eyes of the young prosecuting attorney fixed upon me, I did not dare take a chance. Then, to aid me, a German aeroplane passed overhead, and those who were giving me the third degree looked up. I stopped fanning myself and cast a swift glance inside the hat. To my intense satisfaction I read, stamped on the ...
— With the Allies • Richard Harding Davis

... strip, he explained. It would bother a man to get down there now. But he offered to try it, if he might be excused from the station for a few hours. He said he would be willing to go down and tell them she was all right, or, a little later, he might even take a chance of getting her across. But it would take ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower

... "All right, I'll wait downstairs, sir. I hope you'll bring me a good account of him, Doctor." So he left Mary to make her examination; going downstairs, he shook his head once, pursed up his lips, and then smiled doubtfully, as a man may do when he has made up his mind to take a chance. ...
— The Secret of the Tower • Hope, Anthony

... that feeling," she said. "You've got to take a chance anyway, so why worry? We can work our heads off, but if the piece is a fliv the opening night, they'll tack up the notice, and there we'll be with two weeks' pay for eight weeks' work, and another six weeks' work for nothing in ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster

... mid-June, 4 to 5 gallons of drip bucket liquid fertilizer every two to three weeks makes an enormous difference. You'll be surprised at the size of the heads and the quality of side shoots. A fertigated May sowing will be exhausted by October. Take a chance: a heavy side-dressing of strong compost or complete organic fertilizer when the rains return may trigger a massive spurt of new, larger heads from buds located ...
— Gardening Without Irrigation: or without much, anyway • Steve Solomon

... Haven for the "bathymetric survey of Lake Parinacochas," suggested by Sir Clements Markham, we found it impossible to discover any indication in geographical literature as to whether the depth of the lake might be ten feet or ten thousand feet. We decided to take a chance on its not being more than ten hundred feet. With the kind assistance of Mr. George Bassett, I secured a thousand feet of stout fish line, known to anglers as "24 thread," wound on a large wooden reel for convenience in handling. While we were at Chuquibamba Mr. Watkins had spent many weary ...
— Inca Land - Explorations in the Highlands of Peru • Hiram Bingham

... pretty safe conclusion," Casey agreed. "I don't think you need worry about that, though. The only point is whether the company will be able to keep an agreement to supply you with water. I can't tell you whether they will or not. If you buy you take a chance. If you bought from me, you'd take almost ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm

... moment of extreme peril. Sam brought the automobile to a stop. Had the roadway been wider he might have sheered to one side, but the highway was too narrow for that, and with a ditch on either side, to carry off rain water, he did not want to take a chance of going over. ...
— The Rover Boys in the Air - From College Campus to the Clouds • Edward Stratemeyer

... Mary—that would be infinitely worse. Her thoughts went around in a torturing circle and brought her to no decision. Should she make a clean breast of it now and have nothing more to fear, or should she take a chance on Jo's never mentioning it ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey

... ca-ards apiece, whin th' Spanish admiral con-cluded 'twud be better f'r him to be desthroyed on th' ragin' sea, him bein' a sailor, thin to have his fleet captured be cav'lry. Annyhow, he was willin' to take a chance; an' he says to his sailors: 'Spanyards,' he says, 'Castiles,' he says, 'we have et th' las' bed-tick,' he says; 'an', if we stay here much longer,' he says, 'I'll have to have a steak off th' ...
— Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War • Finley Peter Dunne

... o'clock. The boat had been put into the water under the stern and made fast by a rope to the taffrail. We climbed out the spankerboom and slid down another rope. The seas were terrific, and it was a mercy that we did not fall in. We had to take a chance and jump when the boat came under us. Last came the old man, and took the tiller. He had the oars manned, and gave the order to let go. That was a terrible moment for all of us, to cast loose from ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien

... back to the house with her sister in a most agitated and wretched state of mind. She had the telephone in her hand, to cancel the engagement with her dentist, when Alix suddenly consented to accompany her into town; "and at lunch-time we'll take a chance on the St. Francis, Sis," Alix said, innocently, "for Peter almost ...
— Sisters • Kathleen Norris

... suitor of Portia in the "Merchant of Venice," who was forced to choose his fate from one of three chests with misleading mottoes on them. But there was no time to lose. Should he take a chance? There seemed no other way. However, Jim was an experienced scout, as the reader well knows, and his skill could be put to use inside of walls as well as out on the desert or in the pathless mountains, where he might be searching for ...
— Frontier Boys in Frisco • Wyn Roosevelt

... was that the name Dan Carver suggested something, and then, after an interval, blurting, "Carver? Are you the man who used to be a famous race driver two or three years ago? The man who wrecked himself in the Vanderbilt Cup races rather than take a chance on throwing his machine into ...
— Mixed Faces • Roy Norton

... looking for somebody to throw me a life line. I don't seem to mind common hard work so much. I don't imagine I could jump right into a town and be any better off than I would be here. When I get a little more money ahead I'll be tempted to take a chance on ...
— Burned Bridges • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... folded up all right, but they unfolded in chips of scaled-off paint. In the excitement, or the desire to "take a chance," I had not given a thought to the plain fact that the drops were not aniline. They were doomed to chip in time anyway, and folding only hastened their end. Still, we received just as much money for the act all the time ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... drink to that or not," Broderick ruminated, smiling. "May get after me. I'll take a chance, though. King's straight. I can always get on with a straight man." He ...
— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman

... the ocean or under it," he said, "but I'm not going to take a chance in the air. I'm too ...
— Tom Swift and his Undersea Search - or, The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic • Victor Appleton

... laughed and said, 'I'll take a chance on you, Joe, since I've met the woman you're going to marry and that boy you've got on the farm. If the pair of them don't make you "git up and git," ...
— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson

... decided to take a chance: and he failed miserably. As I was on the green with my third, and, unless I putted extremely poorly, was morally certain to be down in five, which is bogey for the hole, there was not much practical use in his continuing to struggle. But he did in a spirit of pure vindictiveness, ...
— Love Among the Chickens • P. G. Wodehouse

... so well as a bridge builder they'd made ye train-despatcher too," sneered Murphy. "Build a siding and I'll take a chance, though it ain't fair to Molly. Ye'll nade one anyway. Trains ought to have a chance to pull up where it's safe and say their prayers before tempting Providence on those straws. Why don't ye set up a saloon where the passengers ...
— The Return of Blue Pete • Luke Allan

... "We've got to take a chance." Garson spoke his decision curtly. He went to the desk and put the receiver to ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana

... the TU and the TU lay between him and the bad lands. He must either swing in close to the mountains, or take a chance on the open bench. He chose the mountains, and toward noon passed a solitary sheepherder seated on the crest of a conical butte with his band of freshly sheared sheep spread out below him like an irregular patch of snow. The man motioned ...
— Prairie Flowers • James B. Hendryx

... careful," she answered mockingly, trotting back; "take a chance; feel the wind streaming in your ...
— Cytherea • Joseph Hergesheimer

... right to take a chance; some one else may have to take the consequences. —COLONEL ...
— Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts • Roy Rutherford Bailey

... who would make a leap and take a chance of getting away without a broken neck. Fred, while quite as ready to take the leap if it were necessary, would first figure out where he was going to land. A deep affection bound the two boys together, and Fred was kept busy trying to get Teddy out of old scrapes and keeping him from getting ...
— The Rushton Boys at Rally Hall - Or, Great Days in School and Out • Spencer Davenport

... take a chance on that! Come on! We can't move these books and shelves away fast enough ...
— The Boarded-Up House • Augusta Huiell Seaman

... chance on a bowie knife,' says Moon to Dan Boggs,— Dan, bein' a sympathetic gent an' takin' nacherally to folks in trouble, has Moon's confidence from the jump; 'I'll take a chance on a bowie knife; an' as for a gun, I simply courts the resk. But then ants dazzles me—I lay down to ants, an' I looks on it as no disgrace to a gent to say so.' "'Ants shorely do sound poignant,' ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... pilot us to the Fenachrone system now without any trouble. You also absorbed some ethnology and kindred sciences. What d'you think—with Dunark and Urvan, do we know enough to go ahead or should we take a chance on holding things up while we get acquainted with some of the other peoples of these planets of the ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... little job on my mind that I'd like to pull off in about as spectacular a fashion as I—as you know how. I want to make good, conspicuously good, at the start—understand? Maybe I'll be 'broke' for it and sent to pounding the pavements of Dismissalville, but I don't care, I'll take a chance. On the level, Kennedy, it's a big thing, and it ought to be done. Will you help me put ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... I'm goin' to do, I'd better keep still. And as far as that goes, this goin' to see Tom Sawyer might have something to do with it. We might not come back—or get back in time for this thing that's in my mind. Although it don't take long to come back. And so, considerin' everything, I decided I'd take a chance, for we must see Tom Sawyer, Skeet; it must be and it has to be now. You see I'm a little mixed up after all; and ain't grown folks mixed up? I never see anybody more mixed about what to do than my pa sometimes. But I'll tell you this much, Skeet, we wouldn't be here to-night, ...
— Mitch Miller • Edgar Lee Masters

... this assurance—that Broxton Day was practically helpless physically—led the lawyer to take a chance in the living room. But he was manifestly very ill at ease from the moment he ...
— Janice Day, The Young Homemaker • Helen Beecher Long

... roof, no more of the attic for me! I was tired of being chased about like an animal in a cage,—I was going to get down stairs and outdoors if I possibly could. I preferred to take a chance with Mr. Snider ...
— The Voyage of the Hoppergrass • Edmund Lester Pearson

... rained | |again. The good old golosh was brought out of the | |spare bedroom closet and placed upon even the | |fairest of feet. The old brown raincoat was dragged | |forth into the light of day and placed above the | |gayest of garments. | | | |No girl was so foolish as to take a chance on the | |ruin of her apparel by doing without a moisture | |shedder of some sort. And not a general or admiral | |or member of a governor's staff or other person | |holding the right to wear a uniform was so | |intensely proud as ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... knew Emerson Crawford well. He was a level-headed cowman and his word was as good as his bond. If Em said this young man was trustworthy, the shipper was willing to take a chance on him. The honest eye, the open face, the straightforward manner of the youth recommended his ability and integrity. The shipper was badly in need of a man. He made up his mind ...
— Gunsight Pass - How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West • William MacLeod Raine

... how fond of salt you are, and how often this fondness gets you into trouble around the camps of men. Your fear of Pekan the Fisher we all saw. I might add that Puma the Panther is to be feared at times, and when he is very hungry Buster Bear will take a chance on turning you on your back. By the way, don't any of you call Prickly Porky a Hedgehog. He isn't any thing of the kind. He is sometimes called a Quill Pig, but his real name, Porcupine, is best. He has no near relatives. ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess

... splendour of the scene. The hour was late—moving on toward midnight—but in the tall black precipices of Manhattan scattered lights gleamed, in an odd, irregular pattern like the sparse punctures on the raffle-board—"take a chance on a Milk-Fed Turkey"—the East Indian elevator-boy presents to apartment-house tenants about Hallowe'en. A fume of golden light eddied over uptown merriment: he could see the ruby beacon on the Metropolitan Tower signal three quarters. Underneath the airy decking of the bridge ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley

... in Florida I would want to take a chance on for a long trip. I only know two fellows I would like to have along, and we can't get them. One is Walter Hazard, the Ohio boy who chummed with us down here for so long. The other is that little Bahama darky, Chris, whom Walter insisted on taking back ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... Jason that undoubtedly this was what would happen. Whether Kerk accepted the story or not—he couldn't afford to take a chance. As long as there was the slightest possibility Jason had contacted the grubbers, he could not be allowed to leave the planet alive. The woods people were being simple if they thought a plan this obvious might succeed. Or had they just gambled on the very long chance it might work? ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison

... ever in Langtry, Ohio? Well, never take a chance on it if there is anywhere else to go. It's a tank town with a community of seven hundred of the tightest wads that ever sunk a dollar into the toe of a sock. There was a fair going on in the place, and ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VI. (of X.) • Various

... chance on a beautiful doll, only ten cents. Won't you young ladies take a chance?" said a boy, stepping up to them and waving a ...
— A Day at the County Fair • Alice Hale Burnett

... we'll all take a chance!" said the mayor, bringing his fat palm, full of silver, up from his pocket. "How old are ...
— Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories • Kathleen Norris

... The boat-man's comfortably slouched shoulders squared. He leaned over and did something to his engine. "In that case we'll take a chance or two. Hold tight, we're bucking the tide-rip. ...
— The Window-Gazer • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

... in the Halfway shore and the neighborhood of Macartney's picket, and my thoughts were not of Collins—"Why, in heaven's name, didn't Collins have sense enough to lug you back into his cave with him and Charliet, instead of letting you take a chance ...
— The La Chance Mine Mystery • Susan Carleton Jones

... the stranger, "I'll take a chance on it. I have to trust somebody, if I'm ever to get anywhere. I picked you out because I liked your face." He gave Hal another searching look as he walked. "Your smile isn't that of a cheat. But you're young—so let me remind you of the importance ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair

... know. Maybe he was bluffing. But he kept going from room to room with a pocketful of chemicals, making some kind of tests. I couldn't take a chance on his being able to spot chromazone. So I had Grundy give him my keys and tell him to go ...
— Let'em Breathe Space • Lester del Rey

... not wish him to be treated with any lack of courtesy, and hoped he would not make copy out of any foolish thing I might have said. He was particularly nice and, although I shall probably never see what he has written about me, I am willing to "take a chance"—as they ...
— My Impresssions of America • Margot Asquith

... be a good thing for that girl to be married and settled down. She seems to have picked out Bradish. Mayo, you're one of my kind, and I want to help you. I'll take a chance on my right to perform the ceremony. What say if we get Bradish back in here and swap a marriage for what he can tell us ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

... know," he said, almost doggedly. "I can't take a chance. I believe I am. I believe David, of course. But anyhow I'd like to see the ranch. I want ...
— The Breaking Point • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... with a quick action of his resolute will applied himself to the present situation. "Oh Betty, you don't know what you're missing! It's a sight you'll never forget as long as you live... oh, come on! Be a sport. Take a chance!" ...
— The Sturdy Oak - A Composite Novel of American Politics by Fourteen American Authors • Samuel Merwin, et al.

... now, 30 in 1949. Take a bow, all you Michiganders—five or six from Michigan. We could afford to take a chance on a meeting there again ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... you in,' as you put it? Suppose I take a chance and lend you five shillings, will you do some work and pay it back to me in ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... of you or behind you, old man?" he asked quietly, eyes never leaving the priestess. "If he's in front I'll take a chance and wing him—and then you ...
— The Moon Pool • A. Merritt

... take a chance—" when Frink held up his hand and went on, "So if Verg and you insist, Georgie, I'll park my car on the wrong side of the street, because I take it for granted that's ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... "Take a chance," interrupted Keith. "If at the end of two weeks I don't pay you cash, you can do what you please. Call off the sheriff's sale at the last minute; I'll pay the costs myself. Come, that's fair enough. ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... say! Hardly know whether to take a chance with the worms or try the apricots. Ain't no worms in them, anyhow. But when am I going to get my cayuse? I've got a long way to go, an' delay is costly—how much did you say these yaller fellers cost?" he asked significantly, trying ...
— Bar-20 Days • Clarence E. Mulford

... and maiden, close together, hung on to this natural shelf, gaining strength to pull themselves up on to the ground. He realized how disastrous it would be to injure the daughter of the Powhatan. Nevertheless, he determined to take a chance. ...
— The Princess Pocahontas • Virginia Watson

... to take a chance. "The example seems good enough, and if that fellow's flying is a mistake, I'm sure Brigade would like to see a lot more ...
— Aces Up • Covington Clarke

... me," grinned the Irishman, utterly ignoring the young editor; "but you didn't give him no references, and I wouldn't take a chance." ...
— Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories • Rex Beach

... this morning? Forget it. Tear it up. I've been thinking and I'm going to take a chance. I've decided to back you boys, and I know you'll make good. I'm speaking from a road-house in the Bronx; going straight from here to the bank. So you can begin to draw against us within an hour. And—hello!—will ...
— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis

... know where you can get some seed wheat if you want to try puttin' it in this fall. There's a man by the name of Perry—lives just across the Missouri line—who has thrashed fifteen hundred bushel and he'll lend you three hundred or so. He's willing to take a chance, but if you get a crop he wants you should give him back an extra ...
— Dust • Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

... take a chance on de light," said Larry the Bat plaintively; "'cause I had ter frisk youse." He turned off the light again. "Sure, she's a slick one!" Larry the Bat, his left hand free again, turned his flashlight upon the detective. "Youse can put yer flippers down now. Mabbe she staked ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... that she had a balance in a bank at The Hague which she wanted to leave to my order for use in helping people who were poor and deserving. "Please make as sure as you can of the poverty," said she, "but take a chance, now and then, on the deserts. We can't confine our kindness to saints." This gift amounted to two or three thousand dollars, and was the foundation of the Minister's private benevolence fund, which proved so useful in later days and of which ...
— Fighting For Peace • Henry Van Dyke

... slight movement, so slight it might have been made by the tail of a tomtit. But it fixed his attention, and out of this gray haze he slowly made out the outline of a deer's head, antlers, and neck. A hundred yards away, but "take a chance when it comes" is hunter wisdom. Rolf glanced at the sight, took steady aim, fired, and down went the buck behind a log. Skookum whined and leaped high in his eagerness to see. Rolf restrained his impatience to rush forward, at once reloaded, then all three went quickly ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton

... went to a barber shop conducted by one of his Irish parishioners to get a shave. He observed the barber was suffering from a recent celebration, but decided to take a chance. In a few moments the barber's razor had nicked the father's cheek. "There, Pat, you have cut me," said the priest as he raised his hand and caressed the wound. "Yis, y'r riv'rance," answered the barber. "That shows you," continued the priest, in a tone of censure, "what the ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers

... Connie grinned, "but seeing you've gone to all the trouble of slicing the meat up, I'll take a chance." ...
— Connie Morgan in the Fur Country • James B. Hendryx

... actually witnessing their distress. In the still closeness of a forty below zero climate in the dead of winter, the silent stream of white clad figures creeps over the icy mountain passes, in groups of tens, twenties and fifties, seeking a new world of subsistence, willing to take a chance of life and death in a hand-to-hand struggle with the stubborn soil of Manchuria's wooded and stony hillsides. Here, by indefatigable efforts, they seek to extract a living by applying the grub axe and hand hoe to the barren ...
— Korea's Fight for Freedom • F.A. McKenzie

... I would much rather take a chance of breaking through near some star than spend time just barreling through normal space, but apparently Tech knows this, too. They had a safety factor built into the computer so you couldn't end up inside a star no matter how hard you tried. I'm sure there was ...
— The Repairman • Harry Harrison

... each other and secretly vowed never to take a chance of doing anything that would ...
— On the Trail of the Space Pirates • Carey Rockwell

... that is all the more reason you should try and not hurt their feelings. So Mrs. Sebastian had a round trip ticket on the C.B. and Q. and so did Florrie but she pretended like hers was on the I.C. and thats the way her and little Al went back so they wouldn't have to set with the Sebastians and take a chance of little Al catching something though from what I seen of the Sebastian kids they looked as strong as a horse and they wasn't no danger of catching nothing from them unless maybe it was ...
— Treat 'em Rough - Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer • Ring W. Lardner

... said, "what do you propose to do? If you are going to take a chance for the pleasure of seeing a beautiful woman, I am with you heart and soul; but if you are taking a chance because you believe she is sincerely in distress and calling on you, an American here in Berlin, when she's got all of ...
— L. P. M. - The End of the Great War • J. Stewart Barney

... in Alaska. Just where I don't know, but Abe Abercrombie, the old miner whom we met when out in Colorado this summer, says he can find it if we circle around in the airship. So I'm going to take a chance. I'll tell you all ...
— Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice • Victor Appleton

... paled a little, but the prospect of the salvage heartened him. "I don't give a hoot," he declared. "I'll take a chance." ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne

... Eden!" exclaimed Dave. "And you would leave all its safety and comfort to take a chance in the great disturbed world? Why will you ...
— Panther Eye • Roy J. Snell

... forms undreamed, (her reckless laugh) I'd be willing to—take a chance, I'd rather lose ...
— Plays • Susan Glaspell

... I think she pulled off one marriage. She seemed to think there were arguments in favor of the wedding ceremony. But, mind you, she didn't want any of the poor women to go because they were bad. We are sinners all here. Stay and take a chance, that's our motto. It isn't often you can get a good woman like Honora to hang up a sign ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie

... to be a life-saver. Here the company took a steamboat down the Arkansas. It is notable because thus early Charles showed that eagerness to take a chance which eventually caused his death, for, on this trip, as on the Lusitania, he had been warned not ...
— Charles Frohman: Manager and Man • Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman

... that until the records of our work could be made complete it was a wise precaution not to take a chance on both of us getting killed at the same time. We never flew together but once. From 1900 to 1908 the total time in the air for both Wilbur and myself, all put together, ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot

... "You'll have to take a chance on that, of course," Charlie Sands said. "I'm not sure it will be safe, but I am sure it will ...
— Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... "We'll take a chance on it, anyway, and watch it for a few days," Jim declared. "Are you through with ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock

... Kingfisher? If you'll read to the bottom of page 51, I'll take a chance beyond that. Read that far and then, if you stop there, I've ...
— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

... take a chance," was the reply as Lester walked his mount deliberately across the stream. "Besides, I want to ...
— The Free Range • Francis William Sullivan

... passes at night. We could stack up wood on the top of this hill. The island isn't charted. If a skipper saw a light, he might take a chance and send a boat. But how could we ...
— Harrigan • Max Brand

... right away, Tom," said Connel. "I still can't tell what's wrong. It may be serious, and then it may be nothing more than just shock. But we can't take a chance." ...
— The Revolt on Venus • Carey Rockwell

... was just what Mortlake was afraid of. But, as has been said, he was the sort of man who, in sporting parlance, was willing always "to take a chance" to beat any one he considered his rival. He was taking a desperate chance now. Under the artificial means he had used to increase the speed of his engines, the motor was "turning up" several hundred more revolutions a minute than ...
— The Girl Aviators' Sky Cruise • Margaret Burnham

... from Creation to the Day of Judgment; I'd gamble a golden harp against another man's halo; I'd toss for pennies on the front steps of the New Jerusalem or set up a faro layout just outside the Pearly Gates; but I'll be everlastingly damned if I'll gamble on love. Love's too big to me to take a chance on. Love's got to be a sure thing, and between you and me it is a sure thing. If the odds was a hundred to one on my winning this flip, just the ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... a little shiver. "I should think it would take lots more courage to hurt yourself than to take a chance on getting shot in the trenches. I don't see how anybody ...
— The Outdoor Girls in Army Service - Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys • Laura Lee Hope

... it is," Morris admitted, "but just you ring up and ask him. Then, if we find that he sold that gold and silver stock we take a chance on the copper." ...
— Potash & Perlmutter - Their Copartnership Ventures and Adventures • Montague Glass

... said Jimmy, "is contagious. If it wasn't for these sorry rags of mine I'd take a chance ...
— The Efficiency Expert • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... in the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will take a chance of wealth or ruin in the ...
— Political Pamphlets • George Saintsbury

... perfectly frank I was not anxious to commit myself unreservedly without knowing ALL he expected of me, but it sounded cowardly ... so with a mental reservation I finally said: 'You don't look like a man who would ask another to commit suicide. Go ahead! I've decided to take a chance.'... Colonel Z—— S—— looked me straight in the eye and said: 'We expect you to use the same tactics that are used against you. We can't be squeamish.... The interests at stake are too sacred to allow personal ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe

... got, and made a clean job of it. And yesterday morning the girl played into my hands. She rode over to the Sawtooth, and I got her at Thurman's place, on her way home, and figured I'd marry her and take a chance on keeping her quiet afterwards. I'd have been down the Pass in another two hours and heading for the nearest county seat. She'd have married me, too. She knows I'd have killed her if she didn't—which I ...
— Sawtooth Ranch • B. M. Bower

... have, but it's some consolation to remember that that very good woman that you're slandering used to give me the glad hand and cut the pie large when I called. I may be out of the game, but I'd take a chance yet if ...
— Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories • Andy Adams

... violence, except murder. Women steal and poison and blackmail and extort money and lie and slander and gossip, and probably cause as much unhappiness as men; but their crimes, like their lives, are not on so large or adventurous a scale. They do not so readily take a chance; they lack the imagination that makes big criminals or lays broad schemes. In many of their crimes they are often the accomplices of men and take rather a minor part, although sometimes a quite important one. ...
— Crime: Its Cause and Treatment • Clarence Darrow

... to take a chance in a dark park?" Helene asked him, as they sat within the car, while the chauffeur cranked. Shirley was sharply observing the man. A pedestrian crossed directly in front of the machine, brushing against ...
— The Voice on the Wire • Eustace Hale Ball

... Westerner did not fire in answer, though he knew just where the target for his bullet was. A plan had come to him. In the blackness of that room one might empty his revolver and not score a hit. To wait was to take a chance of being potted, but he did not want the death of even such a ruffian as Durand on ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine

... inquisitive—and suspicious—commander of the war-vessel. Chiefly there were a lot of stores upon her deck. She flew the Norwegian flag, and her skipper said he was neutral. But the British commander decided to take a chance. He arrested the crew, placed them in irons, and manned the trawler with a crew of French ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry



Words linked to "Take a chance" :   risk, try, seek, run a risk, go for broke, take chances, essay, assay, attempt, luck through, luck it, chance



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