take a chance

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

take a chance (third-person singular simple present takes a chance, present participle taking a chance, simple past took a chance, past participle taken a chance)

1. (idiomatic) To risk doing something; 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”, in 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

to risk

• Bulgarian: рискувам (bg) (riskuvam), поемам риск (poemam risk)
• Finnish: riskeerata (fi), pelata upporikasta ja rutiköyhää (idiomatic)
• French: se jeter à l’eau (fr)
• Galician: arriscar (gl)
• Greek: ρισκάρω (el) (riskáro), ριψοκινδυνεύω (el) (ripsokindynévo)

  Ancient: παραβάλλομαι (parabállomai)

• Hungarian: megkockáztat (hu), kockáztat (hu), tesz egy próbát, megpróbálkozik (hu)
• Italian: rischiare (it)
• Russian: рискова́ть (ru) (riskovátʹ)
• Swedish: ta en chans
• Tagalog: magbakasakali