perchance

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I long to be alone with "Nature's full, free heart"--perchance, there, my own may beat as of yore Farewell, dear Edward.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adverb Perhaps; possibly.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Then a stern challenge rolled across the river and awoke the slumbering echoes of the forest--perchance to the surprise and scaring away of some prowling beast of prey No need for concealment now," said Van der Kemp, quietly; "we must paddle for life. —  Blown to Bits The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago
  • I was, perchance, the more struck with this fact from having expected the very reverse An air of greater antiquity prevails throughout this city than may be discovered in any other I have visited in the States; I should conceive it to be just in the condition the English army left it; I did not see a large house that appeared of newer date; and the churches, guard-house, &c.; must be the same This population apparently has slept whilst their persevering brethren of the North, to use one of their familiar sayings, have "continually gone ahead" with an energy of purpose admirable as irresistible. —  Impressions of America During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II.
  • And when perchance, a writer had never heard original tales of the kind he felt himself expected to relate, he took them at second-hand Even the most powerful of Bret Harte's stories borrowed their incidents from the letters of Mrs. Laura A. K. Clapp, who under the nom de plume of 'Shirley,' wrote a series of letters published in the Pioneer Magazine_, 1851-2. —  The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52
  • Think of the woman you yourself love or have loved; fancy her in her fairest moments, in bower or boudoir--perchance a blushing bride--and you may form some idea--No, no, no! —  The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse
  • You thought me, perchance, a love-sick maiden, whose heart would break in silence and darkness, but you know me not. —  Helen and Arthur or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman par chance : par, by (from Latin per; see per) + chance, chance (from Old French; see chance).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also perchaunce; from Middle English perchance, properly as two words per chance: see per and chance, and cf. percase, the more common Middle English word for this sense, and perhaps, a modern equivalent.
 

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/pərˈtʃæns/
by American Heritage

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