chance-medley

American  

[chans-med-lee, chahns-] / ˈtʃænsˌmɛd li, ˈtʃɑns- /

noun

Law.

1. a killing occurring during a sudden and unpredicted encounter.

2. aimless and random action.

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chance-medley British  

noun

1. law a sudden quarrel in which one party kills another; unintentional but not blameless killing

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Etymology

Origin of chance-medley

First recorded in 1485–95, chance-medley is from Anglo-French chance medlee

Example Sentences

But in his heart he thought, My unlucky protegee has with this luckless answer shot dead, by a kind of chance-medley, her only hope of success.

From The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 by Scott, Walter, Sir

In the tumult of this chance-medley affray, however, they were separated, and the party of El Zagal was ultimately driven from the square.

From Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada by Irving, Washington

There is no chance-medley where he rules, because of his long, distributed lights, and straight, infallible, divergent shadows that pick off the points and pinnacles of a thousand distances.

From London Impressions Etchings and Pictures in Photogravure by Meynell, Alice Christiana Thompson

But the other side—the purely sentimental—let us not say psychological—side, is of far more consequence; for here we have not merely aspiration or chance-medley, we have attainment.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George

Sleep the sleep of the just, and, what is better in this chance-medley world, of the happy.

From His Sombre Rivals by Roe, Edward Payson