Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game of hazard with cards or dice in which silence was absolutely necessary.
  • noun One who has not a word to say for himself; a fool.
  • noun Silence.
  • Silent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. A game of hazard played with cards in silence.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A silent, stupid person.
  • adjective colloq. Silent and idle.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • For the moment the upper classes lay mum-chance and let the storm blow over.

    Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions 2007

  • Not only had Purdy never once looked near Amelia — for the most part he had sat rather mum-chance, half-way in and out of a

    Australia Felix 2003

  • For the moment the upper classes lay mum-chance and let the storm blow over.

    Oscar Wilde Harris, Frank 1916

  • I would have spoken, only I knew that my voice would tremble, and so I sat mum-chance, staring at my pipe with unseeing eyes, and with my brain in a ferment.

    The Broad Highway Jeffery Farnol 1915

  • Margot had often pitied the wives and sisters of enthusiastic fishermen who had perforce to sit mum-chance in the background, but to-day she was conscious of no dissatisfaction with her own position.

    Big Game A Story for Girls George de Horne Vaizey 1887

  • To use her own words, she was one as couldn't abide to sit mum-chance.

    Foul Play Charles Reade 1849

  • Because if things are done that you don't approve of, either you sit mum-chance out o 'politeness, or else you speak your mind and offend your host and hostess. "

    Nicky-Nan, Reservist Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

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