chance-medley
chance-medley noun: the killing of another in self-defence upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter.
Noun
chance-medley (countable and uncountable, plural chance-medleys)
- The killing of another in self-defence upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter.
- Manſlaughter, otherwiſe called Chancemedley, is when two do fight together upon the ſudden, and by meer Chance, without any Malice precedent, and one of them doth kill the other; this alſo is Felony of Death.1618, Michael Dalton, chapter CXLVI, in The Country Justice, Savoy: Henry Lintot, published 1746, page 333
- Synonyms:
- manslaught, manslaughter
- Luck; chance; accident.
- This is true in the general right of marriage, but not in the chance-medley of every particular match.1645, John Milton, Tetrachordon
- Though much depends on what thy choice shall be, / Is all chance-medley, and unknown to me.1784, William Cowper, Tirocinium; Or, A Review of Schools
- Synonyms:
- fortune
Synonyms of chance-medley
Forms of chance-medley
| plural | chance-medleys |
|---|---|
| alternative form | chancemedley |
Origin of chance-medley
From Old French chance medlée, literally "mingled chance", with postpositive adjective (often confused because of the fact that medley is also a noun).
Questions about chance-medley
- What does chance-medley mean?
- Chance-medley means the killing of another in self-defence upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter.
- What part of speech is chance-medley?
- Chance-medley is a noun.
- What is the plural of chance-medley?
- The plural of chance-medley is chance-medleys.
Words near chance-medley in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chance-medley (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “chance-medley.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chance-medley. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.