Search the Dictionary

To fall in business; to become bankrupt. He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty. Bacn.

A robber upon the sea; a pirate; -- a term applied especially to the piratical adventurers who made depredations on the Spaniards in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. [Written also bucanier.]

An adventurer; -- a term of contempt for a Northern man seeking private gain or political advancement in the southern part of the United States after the Civil War (1865). [U. S.]

Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.] By aventure, or sort, or cas. Chaucer.

A throw of dice; hence, a chance or venture. An even cast whether the army should march this way or that way. Sowth. I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die. Shak.

To take the chances of; to venture upon; -- usually with it as object. Come what will, I will chance it. W. D. Howells.

manner; to converse without form or ceremony; to gossip. Shak. To chat a while on their adventures. Dryden.

Exciting mirth; droll; laughable; as, a comical story. "Comical adventures." Dryden.

A military adventurer of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who sold his services, and those of his followers, to any party in any contest.

e. This method of courtship, [by which] both sides are prepared for all the matrimonial adventures that are to follow. Goldsmith.

To have adequate or sufficient courage for any purpose; to be bold or venturesome; not to be afraid; to venture. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. Shak. Why then did not the ministers use their new law Bacause they durst not, because they could not. Macaulay. Who dared to sully her sweet l…

A woman of doubtful reputation or suspected character; an adventuress. [Colloq.] De Quincey.

modification; change; alternation. Infinite diversifications of tints may be produced. Adventurer.

orrelative to or. Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth. 1 Kings xviii. 27. Few writers hesitate to use either in what is called a triple alternative; such as, We must either stay where we are, proceed, or recede. Latham.

An enterprise; endeavor; adventure. Chaucer. In brave pursuit of chivalrous emprise. Spenser. The deeds of love and high emprise. Longfellow.

To undertake; to begin and attempt to perform; to venture upon. [R.] The business must be enterprised this night. Dryden. What would I not renounce or enterprise for you! T. Otway.

A wandering; a roving; esp., a roving in quest of adventures. Addison.

An expedition; enterprise; adventure. [Obs.] Forwarding this dear expedience. Shak.

ie and be dealt from the pack. Faro bank, the capital which the proprietor of a farotable ventures in the game; also, the place where a game of faro is played. Hoyle.

ulness. There were they in great fear, where no fear was. Ps. liii. 5. The fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise. Shak. For fear, in apprehension lest. "For fear you ne'er see chain nor money more." Shak.