mumchance
noun
- a dice game resembling hazard
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmʌm.tʃɑːns/ / /ˈmʌm.t͡ʃæns/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English mommen (“mutter, be silent”) and Middle High German mummenschantze (“game of chance as part of a masquerade, mime performance, revel”), from Old French momen (“mask”) and chance (“game of chance”).
- Mute, or not speaking; silent.
“There is something exceedingly unpleasant in being obliged to answer "No," to a traveller's "Pray, Sir, were you ever abroad?" and to sit mum-chance all the time that he is running over the "grimoire" of outlandish technicalities. For my own part, I am convinced that man is, par excellence, a travelling animal; [...]”
“I wrote Miss Crane off as mediocre because although she chatted quite pleasantly and intelligently over coffee she was mostly mumpchance at the dinner table. Oh, not mumpchance tout court.”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English mommen (“mutter, be silent”) and Middle High German mummenschantze (“game of chance as part of a masquerade, mime performance, revel”), from Old French momen (“mask”) and chance (“game of chance”).
- An old game of chance played with cards in silence.
“The Taker oꝛ the Verſer is the man muſt play with him, the Cardes are fetch, Mumchance oꝛ Decoy is the game: the firſt wager is Wine, the ſecond two pence in money, from two pence they riſe to a ſhilling, from that to a pound, […]”
“Bear and wolf, look to your prisoner—prance, hobby—hiss, dragon, and halloo, boys—we grow older every moment we stand idle, and life is too short to be spent in playing mumchance.”
- A silent, stupid person.
“I'm not such a mumchance, to be sure, but I've as good a fortune”