champignon 
L. campestris, of the field, < campus, F. elidiii/i, 
etc., field: see camp 2 . Gf. eamperKtiows.'] A 
mushroom: the French name for mushrooms 
in general, but in England applied only to the 
Marusmiits (or Agaric us) oreades, an edible spe- 
cies growing in fairy rings. 
He viler friends with doubtful mushrooms treats, 
Secure for you, himself champignons eats. Dryden. 
champion 1 (cham'pi-ou), . and a. [< ME. 
champion, -iun, -ioun, < OF. champion, -tun, 
campion (> D. kamjiiotii), F. champion = Sp. 
campeon = Pg. campeao = It. campionc, < ML. 
campio(n-), a champion, combatant in a duel, 
< campus, a battle, duel (cf. AS. eempa, ME. 
kempe(=iOIl&.chemphio,cheii}ho,M.HG.kempfe, 
G. ktimpfe = Dan. kwmpe = Sw. kiimpe = Icel. 
kappi), a warrior, champion, < camp, fight) : see 
camp 1 and camp2.~\ I. . 1. One who under- 
takes to defend any cause ; especially, one who 
engages in combat or contention in behalf of 
another, or in any representative capacity : as, 
the champion of an army or of a party; a cham- 
pion for the truth, or of innocence. 
In our common law, champion is taken' no less for him 
that trieth the combat in his own case, than for him that 
fighteth in the case of another. Cou'cll. 
The statutes of our state 
Allow, in case of accusations, 
A champion to defend a lady s truth. 
Beau, and Ft., Knight of Malta, i. 3. 
But choose a champion, from the Persian lords 
To fight our champion Sohrab, man to man. 
M. Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum. 
2. More generally, a hero ; a brave warrior. 
Renown'd 
For hardy and undoubted champions. 
Shak.,3Hen. VI., v. 7. 
3. One who has demonstrated his superiority to 
all others in some matter decided by public con- 
test or competition, as prize-fighting, pedes- 
trianism, rowing, plowing, etc. Champion of 
the king, a person whose office it is at the coronation of a 
king in England to ride armed into Westminster Hall while 
the king is at dinner there, and by the proclamation of aher- 
ald to make challenge to this effect, " that if any man should 
deny the king's title to the crown, he was ready to defend 
it in single combat." This ceremony was last performed 
at the coronation of George IV., in 1821, but the offlee, 
which has been held by a family named Dymocke since 
1377, still exists. Champions' game. See billiards. 
II. a. 1. First among all competitors or con- 
testants: as, a champion oarsman. Hence 2. 
By extension, of the first rank or highest excel- 
lence in any respect; unexcelled. [Colloq.] 
champion 1 (cham'pi-on), v. t. [< champion 1 , 
.] To maintain or support by contest or ad- 
vocacy; act as champion for. 
Come, fate, into the list, 
And champion me to the utterance ! 
Shak., Macbeth, iii. 1. 
Championed or unchampioned, thou diest by the stake 
or faggot. Scott, Ivanhoe, II. 201. 
The safety of the nation will one day, and ere long, de- 
mand that universal education shall be made compulsory. 
Does any friend of education believe that this reform will 
be championed by the Democratic party? 
N. A. Rev., CXXVI. 604. 
champion'--'!, . and a. See champian. 
championess (cham'pi-on-es), n. [< champion 1 
+ -ess.] A female champion. Dryden. [Rare.] 
Championship (cham'pi-on-ship), n. [< cham- 
pion 1 + -ship.'} The state or honor of being a 
champion. 
Champlain (sham-plan'), rt. [< Lake Cham- 
plain, bordering on New York, Vermont, and 
Canada.] In Amer. geol., a term first employed 
by Emmons to designate a part of the Paleozoic 
series of the State of New York. Later suggested 
by Dana as the name of a division of the superficial (Post- 
tertiary) deposits of northeastern North America, con- 
nected in origin, according to the prevalent glacial theo- 
ries (see glacial), with the melting of the great ice-sheet 
supposed by many geologists to have once extended over 
that region. 
The loose deposits or drifts overlying the lower unstrat- 
ifled boulder-clay belong to the period of the melting of 
the great ice-sheets, when large bodies of water, discharged 
across the land, levelled down the detritus that had 
formed below or in the under part of the ice. This re- 
modelled drift has been called the Champlain group. 
Geikie, 1885. 
champleve (shamp-le-va'), a. and n. [F., pp. 
of champlever, < champ, surface, + lever, l&t: 
see champ 2 , campZ, and lever.} I. a. Having 
the ground originally cast with depressions, or 
engraved or cut out, or lowered: said of a kind 
of enameling upon metal, of which the hollows 
are filled with the enamel pastes, which are after- 
ward fired. Champleve enamel can be recognized by the 
unbroken surface of the metal divisions or parting-strips, 
and generally by their varying widths ; whereas a surface 
of cloisonne enamel shows parting -strips of uniform width, 
and with solutions of continuity. Champlevd enamel is 
in common use in Europe and America for jewelry, but is 
extremely rare in the decorative work of China and Japan. 
918 
II. . The art or method of producing such 
work in enamel : as, a plaque in champleve. 
In champlev^ the enamelling substance is applied to the 
surface of the gold as ornamental details, and is "fired" 
in a muffle or furnace under the eye of the enameller. 
Encyc. Brit., XIII. 679. 
chant, . An obsolete form of than. 
chana (chii'na), n. An East Indian name for the 
chick-pea or gram, Cicer arietinum. 
chance (chans), . and . [Early mod. E. also 
c/(oe,<ME. chance, chaunce, cheanee, cheaunce 
= MHG. schanze, schants, < OF. cheance, chaance, 
F. chance, chance, hazard, risk, luck, = Pr. ca- 
:ensa = It. cadenza, < ML. cadentia, that which 
falls out, esp. favorably (particularly used in 
dice-playing), < L. caden(t-)s, ppr. of cadere, 
fall: see cadent, cadence, cadenza, and ease 1 .] 
I. n. If. Fall; falling. 
The daie is go, the nightes chaunce 
Hath derked all the brighte sonne. 
dower, Conf. Amant, III. 307. 
2f. A throw of dice ; the number turned up by 
a die. 
Seven is my chaunce, and thyn is cink and treye. 
Chaucer, Pardoner's Tale, 1. 191. 
Also next thys place ys an Auter wher the Crucyfyers 
Devydyd hys Clothes by Chaunce of the Dyce. 
Torkinr/ton, Diarie of Eng. Travell, p. 42. 
The very dice obey him, 
And in our sports my better cunning faints 
Under his chance. Shak., A. and C., ii. 3. 
Hence 3. Risk; hazard; a balanced possi- 
bility of gain or loss, particularly in gaming; 
uncertainty. 
There is a divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, 
chance, or death. Shak., M. W. of W., v. 1. 
And I another, 
So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, 
That I would set my life on any chance, 
To mend it, or be rid on 't. Shak., Macbeth, iii. 1. 
Gambling and usury are also prohibited, and all games 
of chance. E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, I. 114. 
4. A contingent or unexpected event; an event 
which might or might not befall. 
For ill chaunce me fell unfortunatly 
At my flrste gynnyng and commencement. 
Rom. ofPartenay (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 3976. 
Then we shall know that it was not his hand that smote 
us ; it was a chance that happened to us. 1 Sam. vi. 9. 
Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had liv'd a blessed time. Shak., Macbeth, ii. 3. 
I am very glad that the chances of life have brought us 
two hundred miles nearer together. 
Sydney Smith, To Francis Jeffrey. 
Many a chance the years beget. 
Tennyson, Miller's Daughter. 
6. Vicissitude; contingent or unexpected 
events in a series or collectively. 
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; 
. . . but time and chance happeneth to them all. 
Eccl. U. 11. 
6. Luck; fortune; that which happens to or 
befalls one. 
Than gan the chaunce to chaunge fro hem that hadde 
the better. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 408. 
Yit wil I sue this matier faithfully 
Whils I may live, what euer be my chaunce; 
And if it happe that in my trouthe I dye, 
That deth shal not doo me noo displesaunce. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 68. 
Prithee, go hence ; 
Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits 
Through the ashes of my chance. 
Shak., A. and C., v. 2. 
Tell them your chance, and bring them back again 
Into this wood. Greene, Alphonsus, ii. 
7. Opportunity; a favorable contingency : as, 
now is your chance. 
And some one day, some wondrous chance appears, 
Which happened not in centuries of years. 
Dryden, Pal. and Arc., 1. 825. 
They [Roman shipmen) had learned that men who lived 
on the western coast of Spain had no real chance of daily 
hearing the sun hiss as his fiery ball sank into the waters of 
the giant stream. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 106. 
8. Probability; the proportion of events fa- 
vorable to a hypothesis out of all those which 
may occur: as, the chances are against your 
succeeding. 
No more chance of a Whig administration than of a thaw 
in Zenibla. Sydney Smith, in Lady Holland, ii. 
A single occurrence opposed to our general experience 
would tell for very little in our calculation of the chances. 
Macaulay, West. Reviewer's Def. of Mill. 
An urn has two white balls and five black ones : there are 
seven equally likely drawings, two white ; therefore the 
chance or probability of drawing a white ball is two-sev- 
enths. De Morgan. 
9. Fortuity ; especially, the absence of a cause 
necessitating an event, or the absence of any 
known reason why an event should turn out 
one way rather than another, spoken of as if 
it were a real agency; the variability of an 
chancel 
event under given general conditions, viewed 
as a real agency. 
So we profess 
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, ami flies 
Of every wind that blows. Shak., W. T., iv. 3. 
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me. 
Shak., Macbeth, i. 3. 
Next him, high arbiter, 
Chance governs all. Milton, P. L., ii. 910. 
It is strictly and philosophically true in nature and rea- 
son that there is no such thing as chance or accident. 
Clarke, Sermons, I. xcviii. 
The Bible takes quite as strong ground as the physicist 
on the side of law. The weather is not with it a matter 
of chance, or the sport of capricious demons. God ar- 
ranged it all far back in the work of creation. 
Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 60. 
The amount of a nation's savings is no affair of chance ; it 
is governed much more by commercial reasons than is some- 
times supposed. Roe, Contemporary Socialism, p. 334. 
Chance is a term by which we express the Irregularities 
in phenomena, disregarding their uniformities. 
G. U. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, II. ii. i 90. 
Absolute chance, the (supposed) spontaneous occurrence 
of events undetermined by any general law or by any free 
volition. According to Aristotle, events may come about in 
three ways : first, by necessity or an external compulsion ; 
second, by nature, or the development of an inward ger- 
jninal tendency ; and third, by chance, without any deter- 
mining cause or principle whatever, by lawless, sporadic 
originality. By chance, without design ; accidentally. 
As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, 
Saul leaned upon his spear. 2 Sam. i. 6. 
But those great actions others do by chance 
Are, like your beauty, your inheritance. 
Dryden, Epistles, iv. 21. 
'Tis hard if all is false that I advance ; 
A fool must now and then be right by chance. 
Cowper, Conversation. 
Even chance, probability equally balanced for and 
against an event. Main chance, the chance or probabil- 
ity of most importance or greatest advantage; hence, the 
end or stake to be kept most in view ; the chief personal 
advantage. 
That habit of forethought for the jnar'n chance grew 
with his years, and finally placed him in the first line of 
millionaires in America. W. Barrows, Oregon, p. 59. 
He has made his money by looking after the main 
chance. Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XL. 25. 
Theory or doctrine of chances. See probability. To 
take one's chance, to accept the risks incident to an un- 
dertaking or venture. 
U. a. Resulting from or due to chance ; cas- 
ual; unexpected: as, a chance remark; a chance 
customer. 
They met like chance companions on the way. Dryden. 
= Syn. Casual, Fortuitous, etc. See accidental. 
chance (chans), v. ; pret. and pp. chanced, ppr. 
chancing. [< chance, n.~\ I. intrans. To hap- 
pen ; fall out ; come or arrive without design 
or expectation. 
Ay, Casca ; tell us what hath ehanc'd to-day. 
Shak.,J.C., i. 2. 
Our discourse chanced to be upon the subject of death. 
Steele, Taller, No. 114. 
Surely I shall chance upon some Thyrsis piping in the 
pine-tree shade, or Daphne flying from the amis of Phoe- 
bus. J. A. Symonds, Italy and Greece, p. 6. 
(This verb is sometimes used impersonally. 
How chances it they travel? Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 
Sometimes the it is omitted. 
How chance the king comes with so small a number? 
Shak., Lear, il. 4.] 
II. trans. 1. To befall or happen to. [Rare.] 
What would have chanced me all these years, 
As boy and man, had you not come . . . 
From your Olympian home ? 
T. B. Aldrich, At Twoscore. 
2. To risk ; hazard ; take the chances of: as, the 
thing may be dangerous, but I will chance it. 
[Colloq.] 
Chance (chans), adr. [Perhaps only in the fol- 
lowing passage, where it is often printed 'chance ; 
short for perchance or by chance.'] By chance; 
perchance. 
If, chance, by lonely contemplation led, 
Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate. 
Gray, Elegy. 
chanceablet (chan'sa-bl), a. [< chance + -able.'] 
Accidental ; casual ;" fortuitous. 
So fari-e were they carried into the admiration thereof, 
that they thought in the chattnctable hitting vppon any 
such verses great fore-tokens of their following fortunes 
were placed. Sir P. Sidney, Apol. for Poetrie. 
chanceablyt (chan'sa-bli), adv. Casually; by 
chance. Sir P. Sidney. 
chanceful (chans'ful), . [< chance + -ful, 1.] 
Full of chances or accidents ; hazardous. [Rare 
and poetical.] 
All are not lost who join in chanceful war. J. Baillie. 
chancel (ehan'sel), n. [< ME. chauncel, chaun- 
cell, < OF. chancel, cancel, < ML. cancellus, a 
